Mind Whisperer
by Racingwolf
Summary: When a young scyther decides to join an exploration team, he is certain that he will become a great explorer and rescuer one day. Yet what he doesn't realize is that a far greater danger than simply exploring and battling in dungeons is waiting for him.
1. The Newcomer

_This is my first time writing a Mystery Dungeon story, and it's based off Mystery Dungeon 2, but set in a different area. (Same concept of exploration teams and a guild, just different places.) This is an adventure/mystery type story, and is rated PG to PG-13. Also the characters kind of have confusing names, so here's how to pronounce some of them (that I think are kind of confusing):_

Kinje – Kin-jay

Cera- Sara

Sayu – Sy-you

_This is the only chapter I have written so far, but I'm working on the next one. Other people have liked this story, so I hope that if someone sees this then they will too. Ok, now for chapter one of the story..._

**Chapter 1- The Newcomer**

Everything in Windtree Forest was deathly still. The lush forest was usually beautiful, with lush trees and a variety of berry bushes and ferns, though now it seemed to be holding its breath…waiting…for something to happen. The moon, obscured by dark clouds, made the peaceful environment appear dark and hostile. There were none of the usual noises one would normally hear in a forest; no nocturnal pokémon calls, no wind rustling through the trees…nothing.

Beneath a towering oak tree, two terrified pokémon huddled together. One was a small, tan-furred mouse-like pokémon with long, blue ears and a short, oddly shaped tail. It had blue cheeks, each with a thin, tan marking on them. The other was catlike; a purple and white furred pokémon with a long, thin tail which was coiled like a spring. They were a minun and a glameow, both of them exhausted, frightened, and lost. To the youngsters, every shadow looked like an enemy lurking in wait, preparing for its moment to strike. Shuddering, the minun huddled closer to her glameow friend. "I…I can't see anything in this darkness!" she squeaked fearfully, "Where…where are we…?"

"We have to be close to home," the glameow replied, trying hard to hide the fearful tone in her voice, "In a little bit…we'll try and find the way back again…once we've rested."

"But we've been trying for _hours_!" the minun whispered, close to tears, "How come no one has tried to find us yet?"

"Our parents had to have sent for help!" the glameow replied, "There's probably an exploration team looking for us right now."

"But what if…" the minun asked in a scared voice, "What if…a _savage_ comes?"

"Don't worry," the glameow tried to reassure her, "We'll try to find our way back, and if not…help will come soon…"

Nodding, but still seeming very afraid, the minun closed her eyes, waiting for their rescuers to arrive.

Not far from where they were resting, a pokémon strode through the undergrowth. There was something very strange about it. Its jerky, uneven movements and hollow, staring eyes and gaping mouth full of sharp fangs made it seem terrifying and unnatural. Silver fur covered its body, and two thick black stripes ran down its back. Its paws were jet black as well, and equipped with sharp, slightly curved claws. It was a mightyena, and to anyone who could have seen it, it seemed to be wandering aimlessly in any direction, unable to make up its mind about which direction it should go.

A noise from nearby caused the dark pokémon to pause, and it lifted its head, its motionless, almost unblinking eyes fixed in the direction the disturbance had come from. After a moment's pause, the sound of two pokémon reached the strange mightyena's ears. Mechanically, and without thinking, it began walking toward the sound, its mouth opening wider as it increased its pace until it was running.

The glameow and minun heard the noise, and stood up, starting to back away as the leafy bushes ahead of them rustled. "Wh….what was that?" the minun whimpered, clinging tightly to the glameow's tail.

"Stay behind me…" the catlike pokémon replied, moving in front of her friend.

Before either of them could react, the mightyena was upon them. It made no sound; neither growl nor snarl as it leaped forward, claws outstretched toward the two terrified youngsters.

The bushes around the lost glameow and minun shook harshly as the mightyena began its attack. Both small pokémon filled the area with terrified screams, which were soon harshly cut short, one after the other as the mightyena finished its work. Lifting its head, the dark pokémon turned away from the scene indifferently. It began loping away at a steady pace, its eyes betraying no emotion and its legs falling into step perfectly as it began to wander aimlessly again.

And while it walked, a faint breeze rustled through the trees, making a soft, sorrowful sound, as if mourning the loss of the two young pokémon who had innocently wandered into the forest.

* * *

When dawn arrived at Sunny Town, many of the pokémon who inhabited the small town were already awake; some readying various shops and others heading toward Mystic Caverns to train. Others played on the pathways linking the various shops together, practicing mock battles as they sought to ready themselves for the day when they would be old enough to become an explorer.

Others were travelers, wanderers from other towns or cities who were passing by, or looking to join the guild. Sunny Town was frequently visited by pokémon of all different species, all from various other lands. This was one of the reasons there were so many shops-the travelers and the Guild provided plenty of customers.

Sunny Town was a pleasant place, safely away from any of the very dangerous habitats, and home to a great many friendly pokémon. It was pleasant to look at as well; all along the dusty streets, bright green grass grew abundantly, and the sides of the roads were dotted with flowers in many places. Tall, leafy trees around the area provided shade and places for pokémon to rest, as well as a playground for adventurous youngsters to climb.

Kinje was a newcomer to Sunny Town. As the various shopkeepers were setting their merchandise out onto tables in each of their shops, he arrived at the top of a small grassy hill overlooking some of the shops. As he made his way down the hill, he stopped momentarily to glance around at the beauty and peace that abounded in the little town. It seemed quite different from the forests and fields he was used to.

Kinje was a tall green pokémon with clawed feet, and four long green and tan wings on his back. On the end of each of his arms was a long, silvery white blade, which was curved like a scythe. A sharp fang stuck out of each side of his mouth, and the top of his head was made up of three pointed spikes. He was a scyther, but a young one; only half grown. He had been traveling alone, and was very relieved to have made it to Sunny Town.

The scyther walked along the road leading to the first of the shops, feeling a gentle breeze waft by. He had traveled what seemed like such a long way from his forest home, and was now close to joining an exploration team at last.

As the young scyther walked into the town, his peaceful feeling was interrupted as he noticed several of the pokémon in the streets giving him odd looks, or turning away abruptly as he walked by. He shrugged it off, figuring that all travelers in a new place must get strange looks, and headed further into the town, hoping to find the Guild building where new explorers were always being accepted for training.

Unfortunately, there didn't seem to be any signs pointing in the right direction, so he decided to rest for a while. Walking over to the base of a nearby tree, he sat down and watched as more and more pokémon came out of their homes, heading toward the shops and to other areas, or talking with friends.

Kinje noticed one of them, a young piplup, walk away from a shop, carrying several various items. _'__It would probably help if I had some supplies beforehand…'_ Kinje thought, standing up and starting to walk toward the shop the piplup had just left.

Halfway there, bits of a pokémon's conversation reached him, making him stop.

"The Guildmaster is getting far too picky," a leafeon complained, walking beside two companions, a tyrogue and a manectric, all of them about Kinje's age, "I don't see why we need to bring so many oran berries…it's not like we're ever going to need all of them."

At the mention of the word 'Guildmaster', Kinje headed toward the group, but before he reached them, the leafeon broke away from the group and the other two pokémon headed toward a shop.

Stopping beneath a tree and running her tongue smoothly over her glossy cream-colored fur, the grass type eevee evolution did not notice Kinje approach.

"Um…hi! Do you know where the guild here is?"

The leafeon jumped, clearly shocked at the scyther's sudden approach. Looking very annoyed at being disturbed, she glanced over him, quickly coming to the conclusion that he was a newcomer.

"Uh…do you know where the Guild is?" Kinje asked again, and the leafeon looked up at him with another annoyed expression.

The grass type sat down again, running a paw along one of her long, leaf-like ears and looking uninterested, "Oh, you'll find it eventually," she replied, "And by the way, they don't let just _anyone_ become an explorer you know, especially one who can't even _find_ the place." She rolled her eyes, seeming amused.

"I just got here," Kinje explained, "I set off to become an explorer like you…and I really have no idea where anything is…"

"Look," the leafeon muttered, "Go ask someone else, you're wasting my time. I'm not a tour guide you know!"

"Hey Sayu!"

The leafeon turned her head at the shout, seeing both of the pokémon she had been walking with heading toward her. Bounding forward excitedly, the manectric reached her first, skidding to a halt beside the tree.

"Who's this?" she asked, looking at Kinje, "Hi, new pokémon!"

"He's nobody," Sayu, the leafeon, replied as she stood up, shaking scraps of moss from her pale colored fur.

"Teri…" a third voice stated, and the tyrogue walked calmly into view, "Do you have to run up to every stranger you come across? Come on! We have the oran berries, so let's go already!"

"Ok, Seris…" Teri, the manectric, mumbled, looking down at her paws. She reluctantly got up and walked over to the tyrogue.

"You two go on ahead," Sayu muttered, starting to walk past Kinje, "I'll catch up after I look at some of the shops. I just wish we didn't have to spend so much money on oran berries…" she added grudgingly.

As the tyrogue and manectric headed off, Kinje followed the leafeon, still hoping he could get some kind of answer from her.

Catching up to her quickly as she stopped near the wall of a large shop, he asked, "If you can just show me the direction the Guild is, I-"

Sayu turned around angrily, suddenly seeming very aggravated and angry. Narrowing her eyes, the leafeon yelled, "For the last time-LEAVE ME ALONE!"

Taken aback, Kinje was about to make a reply when someone grabbed him roughly by the shoulders and slammed him painfully against the wall of the shop. Dazed, Kinje looked up into the eyes of a large, winged dragon pokémon covered in yellowish orange scales. He felt his blood run cold-this was a powerful, full grown pokémon-a dragonite, and it was apparently angry with him.

The dragonite's voice was a cold hiss. "You leave that leafeon alone _now_, you hear?" he growled, and Kinje could only nod silently, wincing in pain. "Good," the dragonite muttered, letting go of the scyther's shoulders and allowing him to slump to the ground, giving him one last stern look before turning to the leafeon.

Confused, Kinje slowly stood up and backed away. "What…what was that all about?" he muttered to himself, turning away and heading further down the road, deciding it was best to just try to forget what had taken place.

He hadn't walked far when he noticed a pokémon who looked just as confused and lost as he was. The pokémon was a large snake-like creature with bright purple scales, and large flaps on either side of its head, which depicted strange markings that looked almost like a pair of glaring eyes. From the way she seemed to constantly look around in a puzzled way, she seemed to be a newcomer to the town as well. Wondering if she was looking for the Guild like he was, Kinje headed over to the arbok.

Cera looked up as she noticed another pokémon approached her-a scyther a little younger than her. She smiled and headed over to him, guessing by his confused expression that he was new to Sunny Town like she was. "Lost huh?" she asked, making the scyther stop in his tracks. After a moment, he nodded.

"Well," Cera replied, "I am too…I'm looking for the Guild."

"Me too!" the scyther replied, looking relieved that he wasn't the only one who had no idea where to go, "I guess we should look for it together, then!"

"Sure," Cera replied, turning and heading further down the road, while the scyther caught up to her. "What's your name?" she asked him, wondering if she would be training with him at the Guild sometime, "My name is Cera."

"Mine's Kinje!" he replied excitedly, seeming happy that he was able to look for the guild with the help of someone else.

Smiling, Cera replied, "That's a nice name. Come on, the guild must be somewhere past all these shops!"

The two pokémon turned and headed down one of the roads leading away from the shops, not noticing a luxray shopkeeper pause, giving the pair a suspicious glance.

"Strange…" the teal and black furred electric type muttered, watching the two newcomers talking as they headed further down the road, before going back to his task.

* * *

After a short while of wandering, during which Kinje had attempted to fly several times, knowing that flying would certainly help them, and eventually having to admit to Cera that he really didn't know how to fly yet, they had finally found the Guild building.

It was the one of the largest buildings they had seen, though it was partially hidden in a large cave in a towering cliff that overshadowed part of Sunny Town. Kinje had noticed the cliff in the distance before, but had thought nothing of it at first-the Guild building wasn't visible unless a pokémon were to stand directly in front of the cave and look into it.

The building itself was taller than most of the buildings they had seen while in the main part of town, and forming a half-circle around it were torches, which lit up the cave and threw flickering shadows over its rocky walls.

Kinje looked excited as he stared up at the large wooden building, which had a large wooden door leading inside at the front, with a big, intricately woven tapestry of an arcanine placed above it. Unlike Kinje, Cera seemed more nervous than excited. Noticing this, Kinje wondered why; Cera was older and most likely more experienced than he was; she was the one who had eventually found the Guild building.

"Cera, what's-" Kinje began, confused, when a voice from within the building stopped him.

"More newcomers…" the timid-sounding voice from behind the door muttered, obviously talking to another pokémon. Kinje wondered how the pokémon had seen them, but said nothing. The timid pokémon whispered again to the other, "This time it's…" His voice faded too quietly for Kinje or Cera to hear, then the other pokémon spoke up.

"I know…go find Serai," he said, and Kinje heard echoing footsteps as the two pokémon walked away.

"Who's Serai?" Kinje whispered to Cera.

"I don't know!" the arbok replied, irritated, "Be quiet!"

A moment later, Kinje's question was answered as a pokémon walked out of the building. The pokémon was a large white horse with a flaming mane and tail, and a long pointed horn on its forehead; a rapidash. It was followed by two much smaller pokémon, a timid looking little blue penguin pokémon, a piplup, and a small brown and white fox-like pokémon, an eevee. Kinje recognized the piplup-he had seen him buying something from a shop upon recently arriving at Sunny Town. He figured they must have been the two who were talking behind the door before.

The rapidash gave Kinje and Cera a long stare before speaking. "More new recruits I suppose?" she asked, and Kinje nodded eagerly, while Cera did so as well, though more timidly. Serai then turned and walked back into the building. "Stay here," she told them, "I must speak with the Guildmaster first."

The rapidash, piplup, and eevee vanished into the building, leaving Kinje and Cera alone in the cave.

"I wonder who the Guildmaster is!" Kinje said suddenly, startling Cera.

"No idea," Cera replied, "I just know that he or she is in charge of exploration teams around here. It seems a little odd that we aren't supposed to go inside first…"

"Maybe that rapidash needs the Guildmaster's permission to let us in," Kinje suggested.

"I guess so," Cera sighed impatiently, waiting for the rapidash to reappear.

For what seemed like a long time, the two waited; Cera watching as Kinje became fascinated with the fact that if he swiped his blade through the fire coming from one of the many torches in the cave fast enough, he didn't get burned.

"You're going to hurt yourself…" she warned him as he swiped his arm across the fire yet again.

"No I'm not!" Kinje replied, "Just watch!" As he was about to repeat the action, the two heard the clattering of hooves and Serai the rapidash stepped out of the building and into the dimly lit cave.

"All right you two," the rapidash stated, "Follow me. The Guildmaster has agreed to let you train here… Be grateful," she added, giving the two an odd look, which Kinje paid no heed to.

She began to walk through the opening, and the young scyther followed, feeling excited. He remembered what the leafeon, Sayu, had told him, that 'not everyone got to be an explorer'. He felt glad that he and Cera were being given the chance. Yet…he couldn't help but feel a bit confused about how nervous Cera seemed. Shouldn't she be happy she was being given the opportunity to train here?

Waiting for the arbok to catch up to him, Kinje glanced up at the large Arcanine tapestry as Serai stopped and waited as well, looking annoyed. "Hurry…" she muttered irritably, and the two newcomers followed her into the building.

Despite his worry and confusion about Cera, Kinje felt very happy-after all this time, he was finally going to start training, something he'd looked forward to for a long while. And better yet, he now had a new friend to train beside.

_To be continued..._

_Yeah, I know some things were a bit confusing, but you'll discover why things are the way they are later in the story. I am also writing The Path of Destiny so updates for this story might be a little slower, but I'm going to try my best to work on it often._


	2. A Small Expedition

**Chapter 2- A Small Expedition**

"Follow me," Serai said quietly, turning and walking into the large Guild building, with the scyther and arbok following closely behind. Kinje could hear the echoes of the rapidash's hooves against the stony ground before they emerged into a large brightly lit area where the floor was covered with soft grass and moss.

Kinje darted past Serai with surprising speed and skidded to a halt in the middle of the room. "Wow!" he exclaimed. "It's so big! Do pokémon train in here? Wait…where are all the other pokémon?"

"Calm down!" Serai snapped sharply, wishing the scyther would have more patience and be willing to wait for her. Calmly she walked toward him, Cera following more slowly. Though Serai didn't admit it, she was surprised that the young scyther could run so fast. She watched Kinje, who was darting from one side of the room to the other and quickly reminded herself that that was normal for his species. "The other pokémon are out on rescue missions or else training," she explained to him, "When they get back, the Guildmaster will have a quick meeting with all of you." Seeing Kinje's confused look, she added, "We do that every time someone new joins the Guild. Now, see that ladder over there?"

Kinje and Cera followed Serai's gaze and noticed a tall wooden ladder reaching up to the next floor. "Climb up there and I'll show you the training rooms and the rooms where you'll be sleeping."

Kinje wondered how Cera would climb a ladder, but to his surprise, the arbok easily slithered up the ladder and onto the floor above. Excited, the scyther jumped on the ladder, immediately struggling to keep from falling off as he tried to find a way to hold on to it with his blades. Once he had steadied himself, he looked up, seeing Cera waiting patiently for him above.

Stepping up on the ladder, he suddenly gave a gasp of shock as one of his scythes cut deeply into one of the ladder's steps. "Oops…" he whispered, and quickly scrambled up the ladder, though rather awkwardly, until he stood beside Cera on the next floor, hoping that Serai hadn't seen him damage the ladder.

The rapidash stood beneath where the ladder reached up into the floor above, and with a mighty leap she bounded through the opening and onto the second floor.

"Wow!" Kinje exclaimed. "How did you do that, you didn't even use the ladder!"

Serai ignored him and pointed with one of her hooves to a door near where they were standing. "That leads to the training room," she told them. "You'll train here often, by practicing your attacks." She broke off as a commotion from the floor below interrupted her.

A few returning pokémon had just come back from a rescue mission, and from the sound of it, one of them had stepped on the broken section of the ladder and caused it to snap, sending the pokémon crashing to the floor. Serai rolled her eyes and walked away as the pokémon began to let out a stream of curses and Kinje rushed to follow the rapidash, looking frightened.

Serai soon stopped in front of another door, and told them that that was where the pokémon ate their meals, and went on. Kinje glanced sideways and noticed a large door with an intricate carving of three pokémon he had heard about only in legends, Moltres, Entei, and Ho-oh. "What's that?" he asked.

"That's the Guildmaster's room," Serai replied. "You won't be going in there unless the Guildmaster wants to speak with you. And if you end up having to go there, odds are it's because you need to be punished." She fixed Kinje with an annoyed glare and went on.

They soon reached another ladder, and this time, Kinje was careful to use the dull sides of his scythes when climbing. He still struggled, but managed to make the climb easier this time. After Cera and Serai had both reached the next floor, the rapidash led them to another room which was much smaller than the others, and completely empty.

"This will be your room," she told Cera. "You can bring in more moss and grass for a bed later. Remember where it is…I'll only be showing you once."

Cera nodded and they followed Serai up to another floor where there were more empty rooms. "This will be your room," she told Kinje, pointing to another empty room almost identical to Cera's.

"Cool!" Kinje exclaimed, starting to dart into it. Serai stuck out her foreleg, causing Kinje to stumble and trip.

"You can have fun exploring your room later," the rapidash told him sternly. "Sayu's team should be back soon, and when they are, the Guildmaster will hold a meeting."

"Oh…ok," Kinje replied, standing up.

Serai led them back to the training room, and this time, she pushed open the doors and told them to follow her inside. Kinje and Cera stared in surprise as they watched several pokémon, all of various species, practicing their battle techniques and attacks, while others watched and shouted advice to their teammates.

All of them stopped and stared as Serai entered the room, followed by the two newcomers. The piplup and eevee from before were there, as well as a small charmander. Cera realized that they might be a new exploration team.

"Don't look so surprised," Serai told the pokémon in the room flatly and without much enthusiasm. "Just a few more new recruits…not like you haven't all been through this before. Sayu's team is on a quick mission and should be back soon, and then we'll hold the meeting."

She turned and darted out of the room. Looking back at Kinje and Cera, she told them, "I'm going to wait for Sayu's team. You two stay here." She ran off, and Cera began to stare at the ground, clearly uncomfortable about being around strangers.

A tall typhlosion, who looked as if he was one of the ones in charge of the training, waved to them. "So you're the newcomers!" he said cheerfully, walking over to them. "My name is Forge. I'm usually in charge of the training here." He looked down at Kinje, who was looking up at him with a confused expression. "Aww, you're just a little scyther!" he said cheerfully, patting Kinje's head. Kinje looked up at the typhlosion, annoyed. He didn't think he was all that much shorter than him…at least he wasn't for his age.

"I'm not little!" he growled.

"Actually you are," Forge replied, rolling his eyes. "But don't worry. As you train here you'll grow a lot stronger. You'll be a fearsome scizor one day."

"I don't wanna evolve," Kinje muttered.

"Oh, well you say that now," Forge told him, "but one day you'll change your mind. You'll see."

"No I won't," Kinje replied angrily.

"Aw, come on," Forge replied cheerfully, "evolution is something to be embraced!"

"I don't like embracing things," Kinje muttered, crossing his scythes and scowling at him.

"Well ok then…" Forge sighed. "But you'll be sure to change your mind sometime!" He then turned to talk to Cera.

As they were talking, a raichu, a young one obviously still in training, walked up to Kinje. "Hi!" he said cheerfully, "My name is Cyal. I'm new here too!"

"My name is Kinje and this is Cera!" Kinje said excitedly, pointing with his scythe toward Cera.

While Kinje began talking with the raichu, and Forge left to talk with one of the pokémon who was training, Cera glanced over all the other pokémon in the room, and found her gaze rest on the three smallest ones, the piplup, charmander, and eevee. They all seemed to be struggling with the training, and some of the other pokémon were patiently trying to help them.

Soon the sound of hooves distracted her and she turned to see Serai, along with a tyrogue, leafeon, and manectric. "All right everyone," the rapidash announced. "Stop training and sit down-the Guildmaster will be here soon."

"Hey Sayu!" Cyal the raichu said happily, waving toward the leafeon. "Have any trouble on your mission?"

"Of _course_ not!" the leafeon snapped. "Who do you think we are? Some rookie team who would get lost in the Rocky Field?"

"Uh…sorry…" Cyal muttered. "I didn't mean for it to sound that way…"

Sayu rolled her eyes and she and her manectric friend, Teri, walked over to the group of pokémon sitting down and waiting and took her place beside them. Seris the tyrogue followed more slowly, giving Kinje an annoyed glare.

"They actually let _you_join?" the tyrogue muttered, though Kinje wasn't sure anyone else had heard. He stuck his tongue out at Seris and followed Cera to where the other pokémon were. Serai stood near the group, looking annoyed and impatient for the meeting to start and be over with.

It wasn't long before the Guildmaster arrived. Kinje looked up in surprise as the pokémon strolled into the room with long, graceful strides. The Guildmaster was a very large and powerful looking arcanine, with a vivid flame colored pelt marked with thick black stripes. Long white fluffy white fur covered his chest and muzzle, and trailed gracefully from his four large paws. Kinje could see that the arcanine had unusually long claws, which clicked softly against the floor as the arcanine sat down. He gave Kinje and Cera a long stare before speaking.

"As you all know by now," he began calmly, showing none of the impatience that Serai was obviously feeling. "Two more pokémon have decided to join us and train to be members of an exploration team. If they were willing to join, they are obviously aware of the danger they might face." His gaze flicked from the group of pokémon and back to Cera and Kinje again. "Tell us your names," he told them.

After the two newcomers had done so, he turned back to the main group. "These are your new training partners," he told the two young pokémon. "Learn to work with them and respect them and remember to always listen to the advice of Serai and those who have already formed exploration teams. Today Serai will take you and the others for training in the Silent Woods. You'll learn more of what you need to know there." He stood up and turned to leave. "Get ready," he warned them. "It's not as easy as it sounds."

The arcanine then left, and some of the pokémon got up to resume training, while Serai began to talk to a few of them. "That was it?" Kinje asked, looking at Cera.

"Guess we'll learn more as we go along," Cera replied, looking up as Serai approached them with several of the other pokémon.

"We'll be heading to Silent Woods soon and splitting up in groups," the rapidash told them. "This will prove if you really do have what it takes to be part of a team. We're leaving now."

"What? Now?" Cera replied, looking more nervous than before, and Serai merely nodded.

"Yes, now. I know you don't have any supplies, but you'll be traveling with Teri and Sayu." She paused to gesture with her head toward the manectric and leafeon. "You can share their supplies." Ignoring Sayu's outraged look, she turned to Kinje. "You will go with Tarak." She indicated the small eevee he had seen before. "And Seris. The rest of you will be in your own group."

The tyrogue gave Kinje a dark scowl, and Kinje wasn't sure why. He couldn't remember having done anything to make Seris angry at him. Maybe Seris was just annoyed at him for following Sayu. Not noticing the tyrogue, Serai immediately began to lead them down to the first floor, during which Kinje tripped on the ladder and fell to the floor below, much to Seris's amusement and Cera's embarrassment.

After they left the Guild building, Serai led them through a small part of the town before heading off toward a forest that lie in the distance, yet not too far from Sunny Town.

"Oooh…Silent Woods!" Teri the manectric exclaimed excitedly. "We've never been there before!"

"Of course," Serai replied, "it wouldn't be a _test_ if you had."

"It should hardly be a test anyways…" Kinje heard Sayu whisper to Seris.

Throughout the short journey it took to get to the woods, Kinje and Cera both noticed that Tarak the eevee and his companions, the piplup and charmander, were keeping up well with the others chosen to go along. Remembering the way they had seemed to struggle with the training back at the Guild, and how they were now keeping up so effortlessly, Cera began to wonder if they really weren't new to the Guild, but just had a hard time battling.

"Do we get to go on rescue missions soon?" Cera heard Kinje ask. "Or exploration missions?"

"Soon," Serai replied, "but not before you've had training."

The group easily reached the outskirts of the woods, where Serai halted and turned to talk to the small group of assembled pokémon. "As you should obviously know by now, this is Silent Woods," she began. "It's more dangerous than some of the areas you are used to traveling in. But don't worry," she added, seeing Cera's worried face. "There's nothing in there that'll cause you any serious harm as long as you're careful. You first-timers should be fine. You're going to split up into your groups and go into the forest. There's a very large bush in the middle of the forest that grows mago berries. Bring back at least one of those berries to me."

"Why do we need the berries?" Kinje asked, giving Serai a confused look.

Seris rolled his eyes, annoyed that Kinje didn't understand the concept. "It's the not the berries you need, genius," he muttered. "It's the practice. You're going to have to rescue pokémon sometime."

"Right," Serai replied, giving Seris a slightly annoyed glance. "Now, the first group, Cera, Sayu, Teri, you can enter the forest from here. The rest of you come with me."

The three pokémon nodded, and headed into the woods, while Serai led the others along the row of trees and stopped in front of a tall oak. "Ok…Seris, Tarak, Kinje, you enter from here."

"Sure!" Kinje replied happily, bolting past the towering oak tree. The tyrogue and eevee followed more slowly, catching up with the overenthusiastic scyther.

Kinje turned towards them, hearing Serai's voice fade away as she led the remaining pokémon to another area. Seris turned to face Kinje, giving him a scowl. "Ok," he muttered, "first things first. _I'm_ the most experienced one here, so I'm going to be the leader. Serai didn't split up my team for nothing…she wanted to make sure pokémon like _you_ don't get hurt." He gave Kinje and Tarak a fierce stare, and walked past them. "Follow me."

"Hey, if you and that leafeon and manectric are an exploration team…" Kinje began, "what's your team called?"

"It's called Team Skystorm," Seris replied.

"That's weird…" Kinje replied. "Why is called that?"

Seris turned to face him, clenching his hand into a fist. "What? You have a problem with the name?" he growled. "It was Sayu's idea anyway…"

"Uh…no…I don't have a problem with it…" Kinje replied, looking confused. Seris certainly didn't like being around those not belonging to his own team, though he still had no clue why.

"Good," Seris muttered, turning around. "And by the way, we only have _my_ items. That I bought with _my_ team's money. If you get hurt, that's your problem…same with you, runt," he added with a glance at the small eevee.

"Don't worry," Kinje told Tarak, "I'll make sure you don't get hurt."

"I don't need protection," the small eevee replied firmly.

"Well ok…" Kinje muttered, and hearing Seris shout from up ahead, he ran up to catch up with the tyrogue.

As the three pokémon walked further, the undergrowth grew thicker, and there were a lot more trees. They were constantly hearing strange sounds from everywhere within the forest, but they hadn't encountered any other pokémon so far.

"So where do you think this berry bush is supposed to be anyway?" Tarak growled as he crawled through a thorny bush.

"Somewhere in the center of the forest," Seris replied, trying to break through some thick foliage up ahead. "Sheesh…I don't see why they call this the 'Silent Woods'…what in the world is making all those noises?"

Up ahead, Kinje easily slashed through any vines or foliage in his way. Pausing to glance at Seris, he asked, "Don't you think it would be easier to go this way? I've already cut a path through all those vines!"

"I'm the leader!" Seris growled, giving Kinje a glare.

"Ok…" Kinje replied, walking back to where Seris was and cutting through the thick foliage in the way. "There," he said, "You see, I think if…hey, what's that?" he asked, suddenly darting ahead of the other two. He stopped in the center of a small clearing.

Seris rolled his eyes and reached down to grab a large, pointed stone. "Hey Tarak…" he whispered, nudging the eevee, "Watch me nail him in the head with this rock…"

Seris lifted his arm to throw, but something stopped him. Kinje had become suddenly still, and was staring down at something that lay in a dip in the ground. Confused, Seris dropped the rock and walked over, Tarak following.

The tyrogue stood beside Kinje, looking down at a large flat rock covered in strange markings. "What's this supposed to be?" he muttered.

Tarak scampered up to the two bigger pokémon, glancing down at the rock and then back at them. "It's nothing," the little eevee said simply, "let's keep going!"

Kinje tilted his head, still looking at the markings on the stone's surface. "Can you read it, Seris?" he asked.

"No," Seris replied with a shrug. "I wonder if it means anything…"

"We're wasting time!" Tarak mumbled impatiently. "Do you want the other groups to get back before us?"

Seris pondered for a moment more and then agreed. "Yeah," he muttered, "let's keep going."

Kinje followed the others as they soon left the clearing behind, heading even deeper into the forest. After a while, Seris paused to eat an apple from his supplies, while Tarak ate some berries he'd found and Kinje sat and waited to continue the journey.

Kinje was just about to suggest that they move on when he heard something moving through the bushes toward them. "What's that?" he shouted, standing up, just as a pokémon leapt from the undergrowth to land inches from Tarak, who jumped in surprise and darted to Seris's side.

The pokémon looked familiar to the three travelers; it had the same bright orange and white pelt and thick black stripes as the Guildmaster. However this pokémon was much smaller, and had no mane, but a tuft of white fur on its head instead. It was a growlithe…a fire type.

Kinje backed away instinctively as Seris rushed forward, swinging his fist into the growlithe's face just as it opened its mouth to release some sort of fire attack. The puppy pokémon gave a painful yelp as he was thrown backwards to land on his side next to a thick tree.

With a growl, the growlithe stood back up, growling something incoherently to Seris as he launched himself at the tyrogue, spewing flames from his gaping mouth.

Seris impressively leaped to the side, letting the flames hit the dew-covered leaves behind him. Kinje made a noise that sounded like a frightened squeak as he backed away from the fire, his eyes wide with fear. Now facing the surprised growlithe once again, Seris darted toward him, giving the fire type a powerful kick that both unbalanced and surprised him.

The growlithe recovered quicker this time, though as he darted toward Seris, Tarak leaped forward, sinking his tiny fangs into the fire pokémon's back leg. The growlithe whirled around, raking its claws down the eevee's face and sending him sprawling backward. This gave Seris time to catch the enemy pokémon by surprise and land a few more punches to the growlithe's face. Enraged, it fired another burst of flames, which made Kinje back further away from the scene of the battle.

Seris expertly dodged, leaving the growlithe confused and frustrated. Tarak, seeing his chance, opened his mouth wide, letting a small orb of dark energy form in front of his mouth before launching it at the growlithe.

The shadow ball struck the fire type in the shoulder, but it ignored the pain, crouching down before making a mighty leap toward Seris, opening its mouth to fire an attack that would be too close to miss its target.

However, it never got to. With lightning speed, Seris raised his fist and slammed it into the growlithe's jaw, knocking the pokémon back several feet. Tarak and Kinje winced as they heard a sharp snap when Seris's fist made contact, and the growlithe struggled to rise for a moment before sinking to the ground in an unconscious heap.

Looking around, Seris quickly realized that the fire from the growlithe's attacks was dying down; the forest wasn't dry enough for it to spread quickly, and stamped down on what remained of the flames to put them out. The tyrogue then turned to Kinje, who was slowly approaching the fallen growlithe. "Some help you were," he muttered, "just consider yourself lucky that I've had a lot of training for battles, even before I joined the guild. You're going to have to learn not to be afraid of fire. Now come on, let's go."

"I'm not afraid of fire!" Kinje replied angrily, "I just don't like fire _types_! I mean, I don't like their ATTACKS! And are you sure you should have done that?" he asked, glancing back at the growlithe. "It was only trying to protect its territory…you shouldn't have hurt it _that_ much!"

"It was either that growlithe or me," Seris replied darkly, "now come on and be quiet…I'm sure its family will come and help it."

Kinje reluctantly followed, wishing he could be sure that the growlithe would be all right, and Tarak followed more slowly, rubbing his paw across the cuts on his face. Up ahead, Seris stopped suddenly, and Kinje soon realized why-there was a loud noise from up ahead, the noise of pokémon blundering through the forest.

Seris readied himself to fight, but it wasn't a forest pokémon that broke through the undergrowth…it was Sayu. Confused, Seris stood up straight as the leafeon came to a halt, quickly running her tongue over one brown paw before addressing her teammate. "Hi Seris…what are you doing here?"

"Just looking for the mago berry bush," Seris replied. "What else?"

Sayu glanced behind her as Teri stumbled into view, followed more slowly by Cera. "Well let's look together," Seris muttered. "I'd rather be around other pokémon who can actually _fight_…"

"Hi Cera!" Kinje cried, running over to the arbok. "Did you…uh…have to fight any pokémon on the way here?"

"No," Cera replied. "There were pokémon, but we mostly just kept away from them. Sayu wanted to find the mago berries quickly."

"Well of course," the leafeon replied, interrupting them. "We should be the first ones to finish! After all, me, Teri, and Seris are the most experienced ones here."

"Oh who cares!" Kinje muttered, running ahead, "let's just look for the berries together."

Sayu and Seris glanced at each other with annoyed expressions before they and the others followed Kinje.

"Wait up, little scyther!" Teri yelled, darting past Cera and Tarak and skidding to a halt beside Kinje. "Do you even know where you're going?"

"No he doesn't!" Sayu muttered, walking up beside Teri. "I don't think we should go that way."

"You know, you don't know the right way either," Cera pointed out, narrowing her eyes. "Just be glad that we'll be able to find our way out of this forest by scent once we've found those berries."

The groups of pokémon carried on together, and whenever a hostile forest pokémon appeared, Sayu, Seris, and Teri were usually the ones to fight them off. None of them seemed very strong, and most didn't put up a fight. Cera and Kinje weren't very surprised; this was one of the smaller, less dangerous areas, a good place for a small test. Sayu's team didn't seem like they needed one, but Kinje assumed that for them, this was just easy practice.

Sayu, Seris, and Teri took the lead instead, Sayu expertly leading through the forest, searching for any scent of the berries. Seris and Teri walked slightly behind her, knowing that a leafeon would be able to find her way through a forest better than they could.

As they walked, Cera looked down at Tarak, noticing the cuts on the small eevee's face. "Are you all right?" she asked.

Tarak looked at her in confusion, but quickly replied, "I'm fine."

"Hey, everyone!" Sayu shouted from up ahead. "Look what _I_ found."

Kinje caught up to Sayu as the leafeon pushed past a group of bushes and emerged into a small clearing, bordered by a large bush covered in small, curved pink and yellow berries. "Let's get some and get out of here," Sayu muttered. "Then maybe _our_ team can do some _real_ missions."

After Sayu and Seris had gotten some of the berries, Sayu led the way back, following her own group's scent as they made their way through the forest. Sunlight filtered down through the leaves, creating dappled patterns on the ground and giving the area a sense of calm peace. As they walked, Kinje realized that the forest really _had_ grown silent now; there was no sign or sound of any forest pokémon. Everything looked tranquil and still.

A bit _too_ still.

At the front of the group, Sayu stiffened as she heard a whirring noise through the trees, which was steadily growing louder. With a cry of shock she leapt backwards as a streak of glowing white energy in the shape of a blade zipped past her and cleaved a nearby tree in two.

Seris glanced toward the direction the attack had come, looking confused and alarmed. "That looked like razor wind…" he said quietly.

Before anyone could say anything more, a white four-legged shape hurtled from the bushes, darting swiftly past Tarak and heading straight for Sayu. The pokémon's black claws and the long scythe-like blade which curved upward from the side of its head gleamed eerily in the dappled sunlight. The absol came to a stop as Sayu speedily dodged once again.

Beside Kinje, Cera narrowed her eyes and bared her fangs, rearing up slightly as she braced herself for an attack. Sayu, Seris, and Teri were acting the same way, only Sayu seemed more angry. Strangely, Tarak appeared calmer than them. Kinje didn't think he was ready for a battle. Instead of getting into a battle stance, he shrank away from the others standing in front of him, standing behind Cera instead.

As the absol simply stared at them, Kinje noticed that it had a faraway look, as if it was really gazing past them. Then it began to walk forward with jerking movements, its scythe glowing as it prepared another razor wind attack.

"Oh no you don't!" Sayu growled, swinging her head to the side as several leaves from the forest floor lifted up off the ground before zooming straight toward the absol, growing longer, and sharper.

Kinje expected the absol to at least flinch or cry in pain, but to his surprise it kept walking, not pausing or even acknowledging the attack as some of the leaves cut deeply into its flesh. Sayu seemed surprised by it too.

"What the-" the leafeon gasped.

"Look out!" Seris cried, and both he and Sayu had to dodge as another blade of white energy sped past, cutting a path in the foliage behind them. Before any of them had a chance to recover, the absol leapt toward them.

Teri gave a cry of shock as the dark type's claws raked across her back, and Seris had to dodge a blow from the deadly scythe. Once out of range, the tyrogue ran over to his manectric friend's side, ready to defend her. "Are you all right, Teri?" he asked in a concerned tone, and the manectric nodded a bit shakily before getting to her feet.

The two turned toward the battle, where Sayu aimed a leaf blade at the absol, but missed, though before the white furred pokémon could attack, Cera sank her long fangs into its leg, bringing it to the ground.

The absol struggled a bit, as if trying to get up without realizing that a hundred pound arbok was clinging to its leg. After a moment its head turned toward Cera and it raised a paw, slashing the arbok in the face. Cera reeled back, hissing in fury as she shook drops of blood from her eyes. The absol stiffly stood back on its feet, lowering its head and running forward, aiming to slash Cera with its scythe.

Seeing the danger his friend was in, Kinje forced himself to move toward the absol, knowing that Cera was momentarily blinded and wouldn't be able to see the attack coming. As he darted close enough, he lifted his scythes, intending to attack the absol from the side.

But he never got that far. Whipping around, the absol flicked its head sideways, and Kinje felt the pokémon's blade cut into his shoulder. He stumbled and fell, hitting the dusty ground hard and nearly landing on one of his own scythes. He looked up, seeing Teri strike the absol with an electric attack, which it ignored, and Seris managed to knock it backwards a few feet with a punch to its jaw. Tarak had backed away near one of the large trees, seeming to want nothing to do with the fight.

The stinging pain in his shoulder reminded Kinje that he was still on the ground, and he staggered upright, wincing at the pain in his shoulder and backing away, afraid he would get hurt worse.

Cera, who had regained her sight, watched the absol carefully as Teri struck it with a thunderbolt. After the attack had faded, the dark type seemed to be struggling to move. Teri's attack had paralyzed it. Rushing over, Cera wrapped her long body around its legs and neck, holding tightly enough so it that it couldn't get free, but not so tightly that it would cause the pokémon serious damage.

Kinje and the others watched as the paralysis wore off, and the absol struggled fiercely, causing Cera to struggle to hold it still. Walking toward it, Sayu smoothed down her fur before looking at the dark type disdainfully. "That's what you get for attacking _us_," she said calmly, giving the pokémon a glare. The absol made no response, and continued to struggle.

Seris looked it over, shaking his head in confusion, while Cera let go of the absol long enough for Teri to strike it with thunderbolt again, this time causing the weakened pokémon to drop to the ground in a faint. Everyone's eyes turned toward it, but no one said anything for a moment.

"That was really weird," Teri whispered, breaking the silence. "I didn't know absol lived here."

"Well obviously they do," Seris replied. "When it wakes up, maybe we should try to ask him why he attacked us like that. He wasn't defending himself. It's not like we stumbled upon_him_ or anything."

"I don't think you'll get an answer," Sayu muttered, looking at the absol and rolling her eyes.

Seris turned to the rest of the group. "Well, no one's hurt badly," he said, glancing around the group.

Sayu gave Cera, Kinje, and Teri a glance before turning to Seris. "They're fine," she agreed. "They were just a bit slow in avoiding all those attacks."

"I'll do better next time!" Teri said brightly, not seeming at all offended by Sayu's remark.

"You did great, Teri," Seris told her. "It was your thunderbolt that knocked that absol out, and paralyzed it." He then turned to Cera. "I gotta admit, you were quite a good fighter yourself. A poison attack would have helped, though."

"Oh…I never use poison…unless I have to," Cera answered quietly, her timid nature returning after the excitement of the battle.

"Here," Seris told her, handing her an oran berry. "Eat this and it'll prevent infection. Might even speed up the healing process."

"Thanks," Cera told him, before eating the berry. Seris handed one to Teri as Kinje walked over.

Seris didn't seem to be about to give him a berry, and Kinje didn't want his wound to get infected, so he decided to speak up. "I got injured too," he told Seris.

The tyrogue sneered at him. "Yeah, and you didn't even help!" he muttered. Before Kinje could protest, he added, "And after you got hurt what did you do? Walk away from the battle and stand over there out of the way, not caring that the rest of us were still fighting…just like you did when I fought that growlithe. And I saw you hiding behind Cera before the battle started, too!"

"Coward!" Sayu spat at Kinje.

Kinje wondered why they didn't mention Tarak, but he assumed a small eevee couldn't have been expected to take part in a battle with such a dangerous opponent. But he, being a bigger pokémon, would have of course been expected to fight. He started to back away from Seris.

"And now you think we're going to share our supplies with you?" Seris scoffed. "You need to realize that during a battle you can't back away after getting one little wound. You're not even hurt badly yet you were acting like it was bad enough to give you a good reason to leave the fight! Grow up already!"

Seris turned and walked back to Teri and Sayu, and Cera glanced at Kinje, who hadn't moved and was simply staring at the ground and avoiding her gaze. Tarak walked over to Seris, as the tyrogue picked up his group's supplies.

"Come on," Seris told the eevee. "Let' get out of here before that absol wakes up."

As the group of pokémon began to leave, Kinje hurried to catch up with Seris.

"Look, I'm sorry-"

"You better be!" Seris growled, cutting him off, and without waiting for him to say anything else, he turned and headed further through the trees.

Up ahead, Kinje heard Teri mutter, "I thought scythers liked fighting…"

Kinje looked up as he heard Cera stop beside him. "Thanks," the arbok told him, "for distracting that absol. Don't listen to what the others say-you're not a coward."

"But I was scared…" Kinje replied, not meeting Cera's gaze.

The arbok was about to reply when a shout from up ahead interrupted her. Looking up, both pokémon froze as they saw a group of absol approaching the other pokémon in front. Like the one they had battled, these ones all had a stiff, awkward gait, and were approaching steadily from different directions. There were seven of them in total, and Kinje was surprised to see that one of them, a small female, was a lot younger than he was.

Seris and the others backed up toward them, all glancing around warily while waiting for the first attack. "You better fight well this time, scyther," Seris muttered with a glare at Kinje. "It'll take all of us to bring them down."

Kinje stiffened as the absol all moved closer to the group, glaring eerily at them through emotionless red eyes. Beside him, Cera reared up and lashed her tail, and Tarak stood with his fur fluffed out, glancing from absol to absol. Sayu, Seris and Teri looked even more ready to fight, yet it was all Kinje could do to not turn and run.

Looking at each of the absols' gleaming scythes and claws, he shrank back. If just one of them was difficult to take down, how would they manage to defeat all these? Some of them looked bigger and stronger than the one they had fought, too.

At once, several of the absols' scythes began glowing, and without realizing it, Kinje found himself backing towards Cera. Then suddenly, one of the biggest absol leaped, ready to rip and tear with its scythe and claws. Kinje felt frozen with fear.

_He wasn't ready for this._


	3. Return to the Guild

**Chapter 3- Return to the Guild**

Kinje was still frozen in terror as the biggest absol leapt toward him. He would have ended up, at the very least, with a nasty injury had it not been for Seris. With lightning speed the tyrogue jumped toward the absol, paying Kinje no heed. Before the dark type could gouge the tyrogue with its scythe, Seris swiftly kicked it in the face, knocking it off balance. Seris too stumbled, but Teri and Sayu, followed by Cera, came to his rescue and aimed their attacks at the absol, immobilizing it.

While Kinje stood staring at the fallen enemy, he failed to notice another absol leaping at him from behind until it knocked him to the ground. With a cry of terror he tried to avoid its slashing scythe, turning around and flailing his own scythes in the direction of the pokémon's face. The absol lifted its head and from his position on the ground, Kinje couldn't strike close enough to do any damage. With the absol's heavy paws holding him to the ground, he found it difficult to move.

Suddenly the absol slumped forward on top of him and then tumbled onto the ground. Kinje looked up to see Sayu glaring at him, her tail softly glowing for a moment before fading to its normal green color. "You really are useless, aren't you?" she muttered, before heading to aid Teri as the manectric used her electric attacks to try to fend off the many other absol now advancing closer to them.

Kinje looked around with startled fascination as the absol neither cried out nor flinched as the attacks struck them. They simply stood there and endured it, waiting for the effects to fade and then leaping towards one of the explorers again. One such absol, after having endured another electrical shock, took a massive bound toward Cera, who was focused on fending off another absol that had gotten too close to her.

Before Kinje could even take a breath to shout, something large and bright barreled into the absol from the side, knocking it and its attacker into the bushes. The newcomer staggered awkwardly to its feet, and Kinje recognized Serai, the rapidash from the guild. Her mane and tail were blazing furiously, but the fire type was aware that she was standing in a forest, and the flames did not burn to the touch. Rearing up on her hind legs, Serai brought her hooves swiftly and heavily down on the absol, who lifted its paws in defense and bared its fangs before its head and paws slumped to the ground as it lost consciousness. The rest of the absol pack, who didn't seem to notice Serai, were unprepared when the rapidash brutally charged into them, lashing out with her hooves at any that came too close.

Serai wasn't surprised that her attacks did not scare them off, and now that she had entered the battlefield the entire absol pack had focused on her. There were only five of them now-the little one and the one Serai had attacked first were unconscious. Serai dealt a swift blow to the head of one who had just recovered from paralysis, and it toppled over onto the ground in a still heap. The remaining four circled her, their staring gaze seeming to go completely through her. Serai charged one of them, lowering her head and stabbing it through the shoulder with her horn. The absol fell to the ground, unable to move due to the injury.

Kinje was too focused with two of the absol who had decided to attack the explorers again to see Serai battle. Teri, Sayu, and Tarak looked too exhausted to do much more, and Serai was busy battling the other remaining absol somewhere behind them. Cera was tempted to use a poison attack, but she didn't think the pain would be enough to send the message to the absol to leave them alone. However there wasn't much time to think of a better attack. Seris and Cera struck the left absol as one, and as it fell to the ground, Serai struck the other and slammed it into a tree.

Now that all the absol were lying still, Serai ran up to the explorers, after kicking the absol with the wounded shoulder into some bushes. "Come on," she told them. "Let's get back to the guild fast. Thank goodness those were weak ones."

"Weak ones?" Seris repeated. "Uh…what exactly were they? They didn't act like normal-"

"That's not our lesson for today," Serai snapped. "Let's head back." Without giving anyone else a chance to ask any questions, the rapidash turned and led the shaken group back to Guild Master Arcanine's building.

* * *

For the next little while, Kinje and the rest of the pokémon who had encountered the absol had decided to rest. Forge had told them that they did not need to complete any training that day after having encountered those absol in the forest. Kinje would have liked to talk to Cera about it, but Forge and Serai had insisted that the both of them go to their own rooms to rest. Kinje had quickly gotten over the shock of what he had experienced and now felt bored being by himself in his room.

Kinje's room was dark, as there was only one small window, and due to it facing a cave wall, there wasn't much light. With what little light he _could_ see by, he entertained himself by sketching simple small pictures on the wall of his room with the tip of his scythe. The entrance to his room was blocked by big leaves that served for a sort of "door", though no light shone through it because the room outside was dark.

Kinje was just contemplating trying to sneak out when Cyal, the raichu he had met earlier, poked his head through the leaves and looked at Kinje. "It's…dinner time," the electric type announced. "All guild members are to report to-"

He stopped mid-sentence as Kinje darted out of his room at lightning speed, accidentally knocking Cyal down in the process. "You mean I can come out now?" he asked happily.

"Uh…yes…" replied Cyal as he staggered to his feet. "I don't know why you thought you had to stay here-you're free to-"

"Oh, well, Serai said I had to stay there for a while," Kinje replied, cutting Cyal off again. "Did you hear about those absol we fought today? I mean, I thought we were done for, but then Serai came and…and we beat them up! They weren't so scary after all."

"Oh…wow…um…that's fascinating," the raichu replied, not exactly sure what Kinje was talking about. "Well, follow me. The dining room is this way."

Kinje followed the rather annoyed Cyal as he led him to the large door he had been shown upon first entering the guild. He could hear the excited chatter of many pokémon from behind it. Cyal carefully pushed open the door with one paw, revealing a vast room crowded with pokémon of all ages and species. Some were in groups of two or three-Kinje assumed they were teams, while others were talking in larger groups. Unlike the dark hallways of the guild this room was brightly lit by several windows placed strategically so as to catch the light coming in from the cave opening outside. All around the walls were bright leaf decorations as well as several paintings of famous exploration teams. Covering most of the floor on one side were long benches where pokémon sat while eating their food. On the other side of the room were a few pokémon serving food to others or watching as guild members walked up to baskets full of fruit and berries and selected the food they wanted.

"Just get what you want and find a place to sit," Cyal explained. "Then you're free to go wherever you want until nighttime. Everyone has to be in their rooms by a certain time, well…except for those who are nocturnal that is."

"Wait a minute…" Kinje began, looking at the area where all the food was stored. "Do they only have…_berries_? What are the meat eaters supposed to eat?"

"Oh that's right," Cyal replied. "Scyther are carnivorous. Well, follow me." Kinje sighed and followed as Cyal led him to where another group of pokémon were taking something from a larger basket. Cyal pointed to a growlithe walking away with a small silver fish in its mouth. "We have fish here!" Cyal explained. "Every morning, those on hunting duty walk to the beach and catch fish for us."

"Oh…ok," Kinje replied slowly, slightly annoyed that the herbivores got a much larger selection of food.

"Well, good bye," Cyal told him, "I'm going to find my team." Without waiting for a reply the raichu bounded off in search of his teammates.

Kinje paused to look for Cera, but it was hard to see much of anything through the crowd of pokémon. Finally, he spotted the arbok some distance away, by herself in the corner of the room and holding one of the fish in her mouth. "Cera!" he cried, quickly grabbing a fish and making his way over to her. In his excitement, he rushed into the crowd of pokémon heedlessly, accidentally tripping over a charmander who had suddenly appeared from behind a table and stumbling against another small group of pokémon. Kinje fell to the floor, dropping the fish by accident. He was about to get to his feet when he heard a high-pitched screech and the sound of a basket full of berries and fish dropping to the ground.

"What do you think you're doing!?" snapped an angry voice, and Kinje looked up to see the leafeon Sayu staring down at him. There was a long cut on the right side of her face, and it was slowly dripping blood.

Kinje scrambled to his feet, looking at his left scythe which, sure enough, had a small trickle of red across it. "It was an accident!" he told her.

"Well then why don't you watch where you're going?" Sayu hissed.

"What's going on?" a voice said, and Sayu and Kinje turned to see Seris approaching. The tyrogue's eyes widened in anger as he saw the cut on his teammate's face. His gaze turned to Kinje, who suddenly looked worried.

Sayu, who still looked angry at both the dropped berries and her injury, turning to Seris with an angry look on her face. "Oh…hello Seris," she said in a deceptively sweet voice, then her gaze hardened as she turned to Kinje. "He did it!" she hissed.

Seris didn't even bother to listen to Kinje's hurried apology as the scyther noticed the look of pure loathing on the tyrogue's face. _No one_ hurt his team mates, and whatever Kinje's reason was, Seris wasn't going to take any excuses. "Don't you _ever _hurt one of my friends again!" the tyrogue shouted furiously as he briskly walked toward Kinje, raising his fist in a sudden burst of anger.

WHAM.

With all the force he could muster, the tyrogue slammed his fist into Kinje's face, knocking him to the ground several feet away. Many of the pokémon nearby stopped what they were doing to stare at Seris, wondering what had happened. Sayu had started chuckling, and Teri, seeing that her teammate was laughing, began laughing as well, though halfheartedly, as if she really had no idea what was supposed to be so funny. A few of the smaller pokémon crowded around Seris and Kinje, wondering what had caused the sudden attack. Kinje looked up fearfully as Seris approached him.

"Look," Seris began. "I don't know what your problem is, but you have no right to hurt the members of my team. Let this be a lesson to you, and maybe you'll learn to respect us."

"Seris, what's going on?" a growlithe asked, glancing from the cringing scyther to the angry tyrogue.

"Look what he did!" Seris growled, pointing to Sayu, who was now calmly watching the scene with an almost satisfied expression on her face.

"Well that makes both of you in the wrong," the growlithe replied. "We aren't supposed to fight-"

"Stay out of this!" Seris snarled. "He chose to mess with the wrong team. And as you can see, he's nothing but a coward."

Kinje glared at Seris with sudden anger as the tyrogue turned away. He hated the fact that Seris had made an example of him in front of all these other pokémon, for something he hadn't even meant to do. But most of all, he was tired of being called a _coward_, and tired of everyone believing it. His eyes focused on Seris's back, he did not notice one of the surrounding pokémon bend down to help him.

"Are you ok?" the pokémon asked, but Kinje wasn't listening nor did he even turn to see who was speaking to him. Angrily he got to his feet and charged toward Seris, scythes raised.

Cera, who had approached the other pokémon, trying to see what the commotion was, came just in time to see Kinje lunging toward the tyrogue's unprotected back. "Kinje! Stop!" she cried in alarm.

Seris, however, wasn't one of the best fighters among the guild's younger pokémon for nothing. Before Kinje could strike, Seris had turned around and leaped out of the way, facing Kinje with a look of surprise on his face. He didn't have more than a moment to try and wonder what had happened before Kinje ran toward him again. This time as Kinje approached, Seris grabbed the scyther's arm, above the blade, stopping it from cutting him and pushing Kinje back. The scyther swung at him with the other blade, leaving a shallow cut in his shoulder.

Kinje flinched in surprise as Seris slammed his fist into the side of his face, but despite that he struck at the tyrogue again.

Cera, who was still shocked at the behavior of both pokémon, wondered whether or not to try to intervene. As the two pokémon fought each other, heedless of those around them, she could tell that neither one seemed to be winning. This surprised Sayu as well-Seris was a trained fighter-he should have been able to beat that scyther to a pulp by now.

The entire room was filled with the sounds of confused pokémon and of Kinje and Seris's infuriated and pain-filled shouts. That is, until a much louder shout filled the area.

"_STOP!"_

Everyone in the room-including Kinje and Seris-froze as Forge appeared in the doorway. Seris looked ashamed and almost frightened, and he quickly backed away. His gaze soon turned to Kinje again and the two stared at one another, still trying to catch their breath. Kinje felt Forge grab his shoulder and pull him back. He tried to lunge toward Seris but Forge held him still.

"Stop that!" the typhlosion told him angrily, and then looked at Seris. "What's going on?"

"Well…" Seris began, looking uncertainly up at Forge. "I…I wasn't trying to start a fight. He attacked me."

"You started it!" Kinje growled, but as his anger was fading he was beginning to realize that he should have just left Seris alone. He had wanted to show the tyrogue that he wouldn't let him push him around-to show him he wasn't afraid. He realized now that he had done it completely the wrong way, and now that he wasn't so angry anymore, he wondered fearfully what the typhlosion would do to him.

"Fighting fellow guild members is both extremely childish, irresponsible and dishonorable," Forge growled, and Seris looked shamefully at the floor.

"He…he injured one of my teammates," the tyrogue explained quietly. "I couldn't just-"

"It…it was an accident…" Kinje began.

"Quiet," Forge hissed. "You are both going to see the Guild Master about this."

Seris looked horrified and Kinje looked confused. "I'm sorry…" Kinje told the typhlosion, who pushed him toward the door.

"It's too late for that," Forge muttered, walking in front of him. "Follow me."

Seris cast a seething look at Kinje as the two young pokémon followed the typhlosion out of the dining hall and toward the Guild Master's room.

Most of the pokémon in the room went back to what they were doing or whispered to each other quietly. Cera stayed put, watching Kinje and Seris until they were out of sight.

* * *

Under the darkening sky, a dark shape slunk silently around the edge of the Guild building, scenting the air carefully before leaping up to one of the windows and slipping noiselessly inside. It didn't take the stranger long to find what he wanted, and quickly making sure that no one was around, the pokémon crouched down alone inside the small room, unnoticed in the fading light.

_To be continued..._


	4. Training

**Chapter 4- Training**

Kinje wasn't sure just what the punishment for fighting another Guild member would be, but unfortunately for him, he was about to find out. Forge led him along with Seris down one of the dim hallways to the large door with the carvings of three fire type legendaries- Moltres, Entei, and Ho-oh. This, as he learned not long ago, was Guild Master Arcanine's room. Kinje glanced at Seris, who looked worried, which made Kinje guess that the tyrogue hadn't ever been there before.

Kinje watched as Forge knocked on the thick door with one paw, and for a moment there was no answer. Then, an annoyed voice called out from behind it. _"What is it?"_

"It's me, Forge," the typhlosion explained, opening the door and pushing Kinje, then Seris inside first.

Kinje noticed right away that the Guild Master's room was much more ornate than the rest of the building. Detailed paintings of fire types were hung on the walls all around the large circular room, and the floor was covered with a moss that felt softer than the kind in all of the other rooms of the Guild building. The room was large and dimly lit, and it looked a lot more comfortable than any other room Kinje had seen. The massive arcanine Kinje had seen before sat a little ways away near a large desk, his back facing them. As Forge walked into the room, the fire type turned and faced them. His long claws scraped against the edge of the desk as he stood up, shaking scraps of moss from his pelt. "What is going on here?" he asked in a low voice, giving Kinje a glare as if he was particularly annoyed that a pokémon who had just become a member was already causing trouble. Kinje quickly looked away-the idea of a powerful fire type staring at him like that was unsettling.

"These two were fighting in the dining hall," Forge explained, still sounding angry despite being in the Guild Master's presence. "Seris told me the scyther hurt one of his teammates. I'm not sure _why_ he did it, but-"

"That's enough, Forge," Guild Master Arcanine replied in a calm tone, no longer sounding aggravated. "I want to speak with them individually."

Forge almost looked disappointed. "But I-"

"I'll let you and Serai decide what to do as punishment," Arcanine replied, "but for now I want to talk to them."

Kinje heard Seris give a sigh of relief, and it made him wonder what it was that Seris thought the Guild Master did to those who broke the rules. He looked back at Arcanine again as the fire type beckoned Seris to walk forward. Hesitantly, the tyrogue stepped toward Arcanine, coming to stand directly in front of the Guild Master.

"Well," the fire type stated coldly, "explain yourself."

"I was defending Sayu-my teammate!" Seris blurted out quickly. "He cut her with one of his blades…and well…I couldn't just…I didn't want him getting the idea that I would just let him-"

Still back near where the door to the room was, Kinje found himself backing away slightly. It didn't occur to him to try and explain that it had been an accident now-not with Seris talking. Suddenly he heard the tyrogue stop, and realized that Guild Master Arcanine had silenced him.

"Reacting to violence with more violence when not absolutely necessary isn't the answer," Arcanine told the tyrogue. "Especially within our own Guild. If Kinje was no longer attacking, there was no reason to fight back…you should have gone straight to Forge or Serai."

"I'm sorry…" Seris managed to mumble.

"Don't get me wrong," Arcanine continued, smiling a little, "I am glad you are willing to defend your teammates. However, everyone in this guild is more or less a team together. A true Guild member wouldn't fight back if the threat has passed. Remember this, and avoid all violence toward other Guild members from now on."

"Y-yes, Guild Master…" Seris replied hesitantly, and Arcanine dismissed him to leave. He walked through the door, looking relieved but slightly annoyed that he wouldn't get to hear what the Guild Master said to Kinje. Afterward, Kinje was beckoned forward, and he slowly approached the Arcanine, beginning to feel more worried.

Kinje wasn't sure where to begin explaining, but what he did know was that he needed to tell the Guild Master that the "attack" on Sayu had been an accident. Stopping in front of the fire type, he looked up at him warily. "I…I didn't-" he began, but didn't get far.

"You don't need to explain to me," Arcanine told him, quickly cutting him off. Kinje looked up at him in awed surprise. "I understand that you feel it wasn't your fault," he continued, leaving Kinje looking confused, "but you must understand…that instinct is no excuse."

"Wait…what?" Kinje replied, now feeling more puzzled than worried. "Instinct…you mean like, hunting instinct?"

The Guild Master shook his head. "No," he replied, "not that kind. I understand that there are some species of pokémon who cannot help being the way they are, but with any luck, you will be able to learn differently. You'll have to, to stay a member of this Guild."

"Oh, but I'm good at learning!" Kinje replied, deciding that the rest of what Guild Master Arcanine said was too confusing to try and comprehend. "I'm gonna learn how to fly soon!"

Arcanine didn't look amused, and merely shook his head. "There are more important things for you to learn than that," he said coolly, "you must be able to follow the rules, despite how hard it may be…that means refraining from violence."

"I won't be violent anymore…" Kinje promised, giving the Guild Master what he hoped was a convincing look.

Arcanine didn't look convinced. In fact, he looked annoyed, as if he angrily thought that he was being lied to. A moment later that look vanished. "Very well," he told Kinje. "Let's hope you keep that promise…you may leave now," he added after a pause.

Kinje stood still for a moment, before fully realizing what Arcanine had just said and quickly walking out the door. Once in the hallway, he wondered whether to go to his room or back to the dining hall-he hadn't had a chance to eat anyway. However he didn't get to make his choice-Forge soon approached him along with Seris and led them toward the training room Kinje had seen earlier.

"You are to go to training now," the typhlosion explained. "Afterwards, you, Seris, will work on updating the notice board."

"You mean the one that shows rescue missions?" Seris asked.

"No," Forge replied. "I wouldn't trust a young pokémon with that. I'm talking about the one that requests for teams to escort pokémon or retrieve items. You will do this job every day until I say otherwise. Without help."

Seris shot him a glare but Forge didn't notice as he had turned to look at Kinje. "And _you_," he told the scyther, "I want you to sort the food every morning, and clean it up after the meals."

"That doesn't sound too hard," Kinje replied, but Forge just glared sternly at him.

As the three pokémon walked toward the large door of the training room, they heard Serai's harsh voice sounding through the hallway close by, and even Forge paused to watch as the rapidash briskly led a shameful looking houndoom around the corner and into the hallway. Spotting Forge, she stopped.

"_There_ you are!" the rapidash told him with a hint of annoyance. "I've been looking for you-one of the teams caught this houndoom raiding food from our supplies. When caught, he said he would repay us by joining our Guild, and I told him he could help by cleaning up around the place instead. I want him to have to pay for what he's done somehow!"

"I want to join!" the houndoom pleaded. "But when I tried asking before…no one would talk to me and I-"

"What's your name?" Forge asked.

"Ashka," the houndoom sheepishly replied.

"Why were you stealing from us?" Forge growled. "You can't expect us to let you stay here after that." He paused and looked at Serai. "We should send him away."

Serai shook her head. "You know how hard it is to get those lazy teams to actually do their chores?" she asked him. "He said he was willing to work in return for food-I say we let him. It's not like we need to allow him to be on one of the teams."

Forge sighed and shook his head. "The Guild Master won't like this…" he muttered.

"Oh, he's not a threat!" Serai snorted. "He's a young one-barely evolved I would think. He didn't try to fight back when we caught him."

"I won't steal again…" Ashka whispered. "I promise!"

"I don't know…" Forge sighed. He turned to Kinje and Seris and pointed to the training room doors. "Go in there," he told them. "I'll be with you after I deal with this."

Without hesitation the two young pokémon pushed open the door and walked inside, hearing it quickly close behind them. All around them various pokémon were warming up-team members were sparring with one another while others practiced their attacks with encouragement from their friends or teammates. Kinje spotted Cera in one of the back corners, looking uncertain about what to do. As he headed toward her, Seris walked toward his teammates, who immediately asked him what the Guild Master had said.

Cera looked up in surprise as Kinje came to a halt beside her. "Kinje?" she asked. "Are you all right? You're not hurt are you? What did-"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Kinje replied tiredly. "I have to sort and clean up food though. At least that means I can eat some when no one's looking. And…and…I think the Guild Master thinks I'm stupid," he added in a tone of dismay. "He seemed like he thinks I will have problems learning!"

"Why would he think that?" Cera asked, confused, a moment before Forge returned through the doorway.

Immediately all the pokémon lined up against the back wall, and Cera and Kinje quickly did the same. Kinje wondered what had become of the houndoom, but he knew he wouldn't have any chance of asking. "Ok everyone," Forge announced. "I know we're starting a little late, but nevertheless we're going to work on our battle training and endurance training. Battles first. Split up into groups of two."

"But wait!" Kinje shouted, earning him several stares from the other pokémon there. "I thought violence wasn't allowed!"

Forge looked annoyed. "Battle practice is not meant to harm the opponent," he replied. "It's quite a different story from attacking someone."

Nearby, Seris sighed and Sayu rolled her eyes. Forge addressed the group once again. "Split up into groups!" he ordered, and everyone quickly scrambled to find a partner. Most belonging to teams of three had brief arguments before one member went off to find someone else, and Forge, watching these groups disapprovingly, shouted, "remember! We're all one big team here! Find a partner and get ready!"

Kinje quickly darted closer to Cera, who seemed to be the only pokémon in the room willing to stay close to him. "We'll be partners!" he said cheerfully, and Cera gave him a nervous smile.

Forge quickly told every group to stand facing each other at different places in the room, and everyone waited for him to tell them to start. "All right," Forge told them. "You all know the rules-don't aim to injure, keep flame attacks to minimum heat and do not fire them directly at the other pokémon-fire them to the side. Same rule for water type attacks used on fire pokémon and for razor leaf and other such attacks. When attacking with claws, horns, spikes, or…_scythes_, attack with the side, not with the sharp edge. Are you ready?"

"Yes!" most of the pokémon shouted in unison, looking eager to start.

"All right, go!" Forge cried, and pokémon all throughout the room either launched attacks or darted toward one another. Kinje was distracted by a vulpix's cry of frustration as Cyal the raichu zapped her with a weak electric attack and didn't immediately jump into action.

"Kinje…are you ready?" Cera asked, jolting the scyther's attention back to the task at hand.

"Huh? Oh, yeah!" he cried, running toward Cera with startling speed and slamming the dull sides of his blades into her side.

Cera responded instinctively by twisting her body around Kinje and squeezing tightly, making sure to avoid the scythes. Kinje struggled a bit before finally gasping, "Cera…you're crushing me…" Cera immediately let him go, quickly apologizing.

"Heh, look at them," Seris muttered to Sayu as the two paused in their sparring match. "They're making great progress, huh?" he added sarcastically, pointing to Cera and Kinje.

"The arbok would be a decent fighter if she actually _used_ her strength," Sayu replied, and the two took up a fighting stance again.

Forge walked around the room, giving encouragement to certain team members. When he came across Kinje, he was puzzled to find that neither him nor Cera were battling. Kinje was sitting on the floor, gasping for breath, while Cera waited uncertainly. "What's going on here?" he asked. "I didn't say it was time for a break!" Annoyed, he hauled Kinje to his feet. "Keep going!"

"Ok…" the scyther muttered hesitantly, and Forge walked away to help Tarak the eevee who seemed to be struggling with an attack.

After a few minutes, Forge told everyone to stop and switch partners. Cera quickly teamed up with Cyal, but it took a while for Kinje to find a partner. He ended up being partnered with a worried-looking chikorita who didn't look too confident.

After a moment of resting the battles started again, but the chikorita hesitated. Kinje didn't feel like attacking this pokémon first would make things any better. "Uh…you can attack first," he suggested.

The chikorita looked uncertain. "I don't know my attacks very well…" she whispered.

"Then how about you just try and I dodge?" Kinje suggested, not feeling comfortable with the idea of attacking her before she felt she was ready. The chikorita agreed, and began practicing her razor leaf attack.

It wasn't long before one of the other pokémon told Kinje that he was supposed to be attacking, not just dodging, but luckily Forge told everyone to switch groups again soon after that. This time Kinje couldn't see Cera, but he ended up paired with one of the last pokémon to get a partner, a rather annoyed looking graveler. Kinje attacked first this time, and like he had done to Cera, he slammed into the graveler with the dull side of his blade. He quickly realized this was a big mistake, as the pokémon was, of course, hard as rock and the impact sent pain shooting up his entire arm. With a cry he backed away, asking the graveler if they could stop for this round, which earned quiet snickers from Seris and a few others nearby.

However, after that round, Forge asked everyone to line up again, stating that since they had less time that day, battle training was over quicker than it normally would be. "Ok," he announced. "Now we're going to focus on endurance. You see those paint marks leading from this side of the room to the next? You're going to run…or fly, or slither, or whatever…along those lines and back. I want you all to do this until you've run back and forth twenty times. Try to be among the first to finish."

"Oh, you mean like a race?" Kinje stated happily. "I can do this!"

"And one more thing," Forge continued, "those whose species gives them an unfair speed advantage must run across more times." He walked over to Cyal, telling the raichu to run twenty five times, and telling Kinje to run thirty.

As the typhlosion went on to instruct some other pokémon, including telling the smallest ones they only had to run to the other side and back ten times, Kinje shouted, "that's not fair! Why don't you just-"

"It's not fair that you're faster than everyone else," Forge stated. "Ok, everyone," the typhlosion then announced to the entire group of pokémon, pausing for a moment before yelling, "GO!"

All the pokémon took off at once, Seris, Cyal, and a growlithe in the lead. Kinje was too surprised by how quickly Forge had told them to start the race that it took him a few more seconds to get started. Quickly he darted after the others, soon surpassing the rest of the pokémon easily. As he reached the other side and turned around to go back, he rushed right by Seris who took the opportunity to trip him as he ran past. Seris sneered at Kinje as he fell to the ground.

"Careful there, Kinje!" Forge called, thinking that the scyther had simply just fallen. Kinje angrily got up and continued, though he was feeling tired after his first burst of speed.

It wasn't too long before a few of the pokémon had finished, and went to get a drink from some small containers set aside on one side of the room. Kinje was growing even more tired, though as he noticed more and more pokémon finishing, he realized that he was falling behind, and that he had foolishly used up most of his energy at the beginning. It was when he saw the last pokémon finish, while he still had to run back and forth two times, that he decided it was time to give up. Once he reached the side where the rest of the group were, he stopped running and walked over to where the others getting a drink.

"What are you doing?" Forge asked him. "I'm pretty sure you didn't run thirty times."

"Yeah I did!" Kinje lied. "I'm done."

Forge shook his head. "No you didn't," he told him. "Run there and back two more times." The typhlosion watched as Kinje muttered angrily and did as he was told.

Cera, who was resting beside Tarak the eevee, who looked exhausted, noticed Sayu and Seris's barely stifled laughter as they watched Kinje run back and forth again. She didn't think Kinje noticed, but all the same, it made her angry. She felt like telling the others to leave him alone, but she felt too nervous to approach them.

After Kinje rejoined the others, Forge began speaking again. "All right," he announced. "We'll take a short break and then-" He paused as the door to the training room was pushed open and Serai walked inside. "Uh…what is it?" Forge asked, sounding annoyed. "We're in the middle of training."

"The Guild Master wants to speak to both of us," Serai told him.

"What? Now? Is there something wrong?" Forge asked.

"Yeah, the Guild's on fire," Serai replied sarcastically, and when Forge looked back at her with a shocked expression, she sneered. "No you idiot! There's nothing wrong! He just wants a meeting! Nothing unusual about that. Now come on, and send the team members to their rooms for the night."

Forge sighed. "All right," he told all the assembled pokémon. "You heard her, get to your rooms. Except for you Seris-you get to work updating the notice board. And Kinje, I want to see you in the morning! Now, go on everyone. We'll train harder tomorrow to make up for the time we lost today!"

As the group of assembled pokémon left, Forge followed Serai reluctantly and Kinje headed alone to his room. By the time he entered it and lay down, he was more exhausted than ever, but strangely he seemed unable to sleep. He felt that he hadn't been able to do anything right, apart from actually joining the Guild. At least, he thought, this had only been his first day at the Guild…and tomorrow, he was determined to do better.

_To be continued..._


	5. The New Team

**Chapter Five-The New Team**

In the early morning, Forge made his way to Kinje's room and led the young pokémon to the room where food had been stored. Pushing the still half-asleep scyther into the doorway, he told him to sort out the berries into separate baskets and then left, closing the heavy wooden door quickly behind him. Kinje looked around in the semi darkness, trying to wake up fully. Light was just barely showing through the window-it faced the cave wall so there wasn't much light to see by in the early dawn. Looking at a huge basket full of berries the pokémon who were on foraging duty had gathered, Kinje was certain he only knew the names of about three of them. Luckily, he thought, he didn't have to know what they were to separate them by color, size, and shape.

Looking into the basket, he decided to start with the round blue ones, as they seemed the easiest to pick out from the rest in the dim light due to their dark color. Picking up the first one carefully between his blades, he lifted it slowly into the nearest small basket. He then turned back to the big basket full of berries. Looking back at the amount of berries in the basket, he realized he would never get done any time soon that way, and he didn't want to miss part of another training session or anything else important. Quickly sticking each berry on the end of his scythe, he hastily tossed them into the basket as fast as he could, just wanting to get the job done with. A few of them missed and landed on the floor, but Kinje was too busy to care, or to realize that several of the berries in the basket had been smashed when he threw them.

The sound of the door opening caused the young scyther to look up from his task. In walked a sad-looking houndoom, carrying a basket of fish. Kinje recognized him as the houndoom he had seen the night before, but he couldn't remember what the dark type had said his name was. He watched as the houndoom wearily set the basket down and walk toward an empty basket. He was about to pick the empty one up in his mouth, when he suddenly changed his mind and sat down, taking the opportunity to rest.

"You're that houndoom," Kinje said, alerting the dark type to the scyther's presence for the first time. "So they let you stay?"

The houndoom turned to look at the pokémon. He recognized it instantly as a scyther-usually an intimidating-looking species, but this one was just a kid. Younger than he was, even. He sighed. "The typhlosion said I might have a shot at joining the Guild if I prove myself useful," he muttered. "Though I'm starting to wonder if they're just saying that to make sure I don't take off while they still want me working for them. I don't mind the work so much, I just want to be a member of an exploration team." He sighed wearily again and looked at the scyther. "Are you a member? By the way, my name is Ashka."

"My name's Kinje," the scyther replied. "And yeah, I'm a member! I just joined yesterday!"

"You're lucky they let you in," Ashka replied solemnly. "They didn't when I tried."

"I guess they don't want too many pokémon joining," Kinje guessed. "I don't really see why. The Guild has plenty of room. Maybe they're worried there aren't enough teachers here or something."

Ashka didn't reply at first. When he did, he changed the subject. "Have you formed a team yet?" he asked. Kinje shook his head. "Oh," Ashka replied quietly. "I thought you might have had some friends beforehand to form a team with…I-I mean, if you came here alone, you'd have to get to know the other pokémon better first, right?"

"I made a friend here already!" Kinje said cheerfully. "Her name's Cera. I want to form an exploration team with her. I think you need one to go on exploration or rescue missions."

Ashka was silent for a moment, and then he finally spoke. "Well, good luck to you then. Just hope that your client doesn't mistake you for the bad guy."

"Why would they mistake me for a bad guy?" Kinje asked.

Ashka looked at the scyther. He seemed so naïve. "Let's just say that you and I aren't really popular species around here. At least with the grown ups. Most of them anyway. We don't exactly have the best reputation. I mean, well for one thing…the Guild Master's father was murdered by a scyther, so…"

"What?" Kinje exclaimed. "Why?"

"I don't know," Ashka replied. "We aren't even supposed to talk about it. But everyone in Sunny Town knows. That's why I said you were lucky to get in. The Guild Master is still devastated by it. And that's really only the best known example. There have been bad teams…_evil_ teams…and guess what sort of pokémon they consisted of. And of course, there's the wild pokémon who have been killing young ones around several towns. A lot of them were dark types."

"There's been pokémon from the towns…killed?" Kinje repeated fearfully.

"Not around here," Ashka replied. "And with any luck, the Guild will put a stop to them."

Kinje listened in silence, suddenly realizing that he hadn't been sorting berries. Quickly moving the blue berries (and a few others by accident) into the basket, he asked, "but everyone will trust a Guild member, right? We're here to help others!"

Ashka smiled faintly. "Let's hope so," he replied. "It would be nice to prove some of the narrow minded pokémon in this town wrong."

Kinje nodded, though he really didn't see why any pokémon would have reason to judge someone by their species, so he decided not to dwell on the thought. Ashka was probably frustrated and exaggerating anyways. "You know," he began. "I got sent here as punishment, but I know something good about having to do this job." Ashka looked at him curiously as he continued. "When no one's around, that means we can eat the best food and no one will know!"

Despite his recent discouragement about not getting to be a member, Ashka gave him a small smile. "I guess you're right."

* * *

Forge stood in front of the notice boards-the ones where requests for help were posted. Looking at what places the notes were requesting teams to go to search for items, Forge smiled. It was a day for new teams to take their first mission, and for already formed teams to gain more experience. There would be no training this morning-he was going to leave it up to all the members who did not yet belong to a team to form one today.

Most of the members here were already part of a team, usually a group of three, but there were others that still hadn't, as well as several new members who hadn't had a chance. Still smiling, he went to find Serai and round up the members.

By the time all the young pokémon not out on important missions were gathered in the training room, Forge and Serai had brought in a basket filled with several colorful bandanas, which members of a team wore. Each team had bandanas of a different color or hue, and those who had proven themselves were able to wear a small badge representing the Guild on their bandana. Forge sighed as he looked at the colorful pieces of cloth, mentally preparing himself for when the less mature members of the Guild would fight over the colors.

Glancing around, Kinje noticed that all three of the members of Seris's team were wearing dark green bandanas around their necks for the first time-at least that he had seen, each with a small badge depicting a running arcanine pinned to it. He hadn't seen the three wear them before, and he wondered if they only wore them on rescue or exploration missions and on special occasions, or, what he suspected was the reason they were wearing them now, to show off. Kinje turned his attention from Seris's team to Forge as the typhlosion began speaking.

"Well, the reason you are here is obviously to form teams," Forge explained. "Now, some of you will be going on your first mission today-there are several items in different locations that pokémon are asking for. Now, each team gets to wear a different colored bandana…" He paused as he picked up a yellow one, holding it up for everyone to see. "Everyone in the same team gets the same color as their teammates."

"And don't fight over what color your team's getting," Serai told them irritably. "Or you don't get one at all."

"If you don't know anyone here yet," Forge continued, "ask to join one of the other teams. You'll get to know them fast. If you have trouble finding a team, just talk to me."

"So we're supposed to find teams just like that?" a growlithe, obviously new to the Guild, asked.

Forge nodded. "We're all one big team here. Even if you don't know the pokémon you're joining up with, you'll get to know them fast! If for whatever reason it becomes a problem, you can switch or start your own later. Any questions? Ok, good. Now go find your teams!"

All at once, several small pokémon ran up to the basket, grabbing at different bandanas. Forge grabbed them back and shooed them away, calling, "Hey! You don't get them until _after_you form your teams. Come back when you're ready!" They left quickly, and he stepped back, shaking his head with a sigh.

"Such children," Serai muttered, rolling her eyes.

Kinje quickly ran up to Cera, looking excited. "We can be a team, right?" he asked her.

Cera smiled at him and nodded. "Of course," she told him.

Kinje smiled back. "Let's go find more members!" he cried, and turned to the growlithe who had spoken before. "Hey, want to be-"

"No," the growlithe replied, quickly turning away.

"Oh…" Kinje said quietly. He then noticed the shape of a raichu walking by. "Hey Cyal-"

"No."

On the other side of the room, a small chikorita timidly walked up to Seris's group. "Um...hi," she told them, earning her odd looks from the three pokémon. "I was wondering if I could join Team Skystorm, and I-"

"We aren't accepting new members," Seris replied, cutting her off. The chikorita quickly scuttled away, embarrassed.

Kinje had had no success finding any other Team Members. As he looked around, he noticed Tarak the eevee with the piplup and charmander he had seen before, picking up three sky blue bandanas. "I don't think we're going to get any more members today," Kinje told Cera. "Should we just tell Forge we're a team of two?"

"I guess so," Cera replied with a sigh. She followed Kinje up to the typhlosion, half wondering if she would have managed to become a member of a bigger team had Kinje not belonged to hers.

Forge looked up to see Kinje walking toward him with Cera moving gracefully behind him. "Only two members?" he asked, and Kinje nodded. "All right then," Forge continued. "Since you're forming a new team, what do you want your team name to be?"

Kinje started thinking, and Cera looked clueless for any ideas. "You can name our team," she told Kinje.

Suddenly Kinje smiled. "I thought of the best name ever!" he informed the typhlosion and arbok. "I want our team to be called…Team Shadowfang."

"Team Shadowfang?" Forge repeated. "That sounds like the sort of name a dark type team would have."

"Or a team with members that both have fangs!" Kinje replied happily. "I still think that is the most awesome, cool sounding name I ever thought of. Don't you like it?"

"Sure!" Forge replied enthusiastically. "If you think it fits your team, then it's perfect." He pushed the basket containing the bandanas over to them. "Pick a color," he told them, and once again, Cera smiled at Kinje, allowing him to choose.

"What color should we get, Cera?" he asked, looking into the basket. "Yellow? Orange? Oh, how about red? I love the color red! Whenever I look at it I get this weird feeling…like I wanna fight something! That's a great color for a team that has to rescue pokémon from bad guys, don't you think?"

"Sure," Serai muttered from where she was watching. "Take the red ones and go. There are others waiting."

"Look, Cera!" he cried, turning toward the arbok with the five bright red bandanas held carefully between his scythes. "We got the red ones! But why do we need five?"

"That's for when you get more members," Forge explained.

"What if we get more than five?" Kinje asked.

"You don't have to worry about that," a passing pokémon muttered. Kinje didn't seem to have heard.

"Well, you can get more from us if needed," Forge explained to him. "Though usually teams around here don't exceed four or five members."

"Can we go on a rescue mission now?" Kinje asked.

Forge shook his head. "Not yet," he replied. "And you'll most likely be doing something simple, like retrieving items, since this is your first time." As he spoke, he quickly tied one of the bandanas loosely around Kinje's neck, then another around Cera's. "Wait over there," he told them, and the two went over to where the other teams waited, Kinje bouncing along excitedly beside Cera.

As Kinje and Cera joined the other teams, Kinje noticed the growlithe he had seen earlier teamed up with a chikorita and a skitty. It wasn't long before everyone had joined a team or formed their own. Kinje noticed that his team was the only one in the room with only two members. Forge quickly told everyone to follow him, and the typhlosion led them to a large room on the ground floor of the Guild, where the notice boards with requests for help were hung on the wall. Kinje passed one of them quickly as he and the others were urged forward, and since they didn't stop in front of it, he assumed that those were where the urgent or very difficult missions were posted. He also noticed a few wanted posters on the board-one showed an accurate drawing of a snarling mightyena, another a mean-looking garchomp, and the third a grinning weavile. He didn't get a very good look, as they were quickly rushed past.

The group halted in front of two other notice boards, and Forge began instructing each team to take one of the pieces of paper pinned to it. Kinje, who was near the back, stood on tip-claw as he tried to see what sort of missions they would be doing. The beginning teams were mainly taking papers from the left notice board, where he assumed the simple requests were put. Forge was explaining that at any time while not during their turn for training, they could take one of the requests and set out to help other pokémon. He was warning them about not going to any of the most dangerous places which were marked on the papers as they were for the really experienced teams when Kinje noticed Seris's team, Team Skystorm, walking past holding one of the papers and looking proud of themselves. Kinje was trying to get a look at what their paper said when he saw a pikachu rush into the room, telling Forge that there had been several accounts of lost pokémon and handing him some papers.

"Forge!" Kinje yelled, running up past the group of pokémon standing in front of him and stopping in front of the typhlosion. "My team can help!"

The ampharos who had been waiting in line pushed Kinje roughly aside. "We can take one of those missions," he stated. "Just tell us where to go."

Forge handed them one of the papers as the pikachu described a family of marill and azumarill who had had a family member go missing that morning. Other teams offered to help find the other lost pokémon, while some chose to stick with easier missions, unsure if they could handle a real rescue yet. Kinje noticed that the pikachu looked extremely worried, and walked over to him. "What's wrong?" he asked. "Are you worried about the pokémon?"

The pikachu nodded. "There were a lot of disappearances last night and we think they were lost or taken into the wilderness. I…I think more teams should be sent out…to different places…not just the ones the families who wrote those letters suspect…" He paused and added. "My brother was one of the ones missing…and I…just don't know…"

Forge pushed Kinje out of the way and leaned down near the distraught pikachu, who was obviously fighting panic. "Don't worry then," he told the electric type. "We'll find them. I'll send teams to every bit of wilderness around the town."

"Where do you think your brother is?" Kinje asked, now standing by the pikachu's other side.

"Darkness Cave," the pikachu replied. "He likes exploring it, and I think that must have been where he went. He hasn't come back though, and I…"

"We can look there!" Kinje offered, with a glance at Forge.

The typhlosion shook his head. "I can let you search some other place, but not Darkness Cave," he told Kinje. "You don't have any pokémon on your team able to provide light," he told them. "You need light in order to travel through a cave."

"Will you come with us?" Kinje asked the worried pikachu.

"No," Forge answered for him. "It's obvious he's run a long way. He can't journey through a cave so soon after. One of the other teams can do it."

Kinje turned to look at the remaining exploration teams. Most didn't have any fire or electric types, and the only one he could see that did was Tarak's team, which had a small charmander member. Suddenly he had an idea. "What about that houndoom that came here yesterday?" he asked. "I talked to him-he wanted to be part of a team. He can come with us and light the way."

Forge looked from the pikachu to the remaining teams. Most of the other teams had dashed off already, urgently heading to search in other areas. The typhlosion was reluctant to let such a new team handle the job, but there didn't seem to be much else to do other than wait for one of the other teams. That, and he figured with a team of two fully evolved pokémon and a scyther, they would be able to hold their own against wild pokémon. "All right," he sighed. "Grab some supplies and go quickly."

"I will!" Kinje shouted, running over to a corner where small bags containing basic supplies had been placed for new teams.

"And remember," Forge shouted. "That houndoom's not a member of the guild yet-he's only helping us out for now."

"If he helps us during this mission, can he become one?" Kinje asked, but Forge was already urgently talking to some other teams. Kinje turned and ran to the room where food was stored, ready to explain everything to Ashka. Maybe, he thought, he could later convince Forge to let the houndoom join.

* * *

It was only a matter of minutes until Kinje, Cera and Ashka were darting frantically through Sunny Town. Ashka looked noticeably happier than when Kinje had seen him before-the young houndoom seemed eager to prove himself and to help out a fellow pokémon.

"So where's the cave?" Kinje asked as he ran side by side with Ashka, careful not to get too far ahead of him.

"I know the way, Kinje," Ashka replied. "Just go where I go!"

Kinje nodded and followed the houndoom, turning a corner quickly and passing several confused shopkeepers. They were almost out of the town when Kinje saw something unexpected. Near one of the shops was Seris's team, talking idly with one another as the shopkeeper rummaged in the back of the small store.

Skidding to a stop, Kinje glared at them. "What are you doing?" he gasped. "There are pokémon out there who need help!"

"Mind your own business!" Sayu snarled, and Seris turned to face him.

"We need extra supplies, genius," he muttered. "We can't rescue anyone if we're poisoned or paralyzed, and that happens to be one of the main dangers in the place we're going to. Now leave us alone."

Embarrassed, Kinje quickly walked away, breaking into a run again and catching up with the rest of his team as soon as he was out of sight. Seris stared after him and shook his head. "I hope he gets eaten," he muttered, staring after Kinje.

"But Seris," Teri whispered, leaning close to the tyrogue, "scyther are at the top of the food chain."

"Darn it."

* * *

Ashka, Kinje, and Cera slid to a stop in front of a tall hill with a wide but low cave entrance at its base. "This is it?" Kinje asked Ashka.

The houndoom nodded. "Yep," he replied. "I've been here before, a few times." Getting a better grip on the supply bag he held in his mouth, the houndoom crept quietly inside. When his pointed tail vanished into the opening, Kinje couldn't see any sign of him when peering into the cave. "You coming?" came Ashka's voice from inside.

"Uh, yeah!" Kinje replied, and slowly walked into the cave, feeling the oppressive darkness surround him as well.

Cera slid into the cave after him, scenting the air curiously. Up ahead, a light exploded in the darkness, and Kinje saw Ashka, leading the way with a small bright flamethrower attack, walk deeper into the cave. Cera and Kinje glanced at one another before stepping away from the safety of the sunlit entrance and following Ashka into the dark.


	6. The First Rescue Mission

_I finally managed to get this to upload! Apparently it doesn't work on firefox.__Anyway, this chapter__ is a lot shorter than my usual chapters, and not quite as detailed. I meant for this one to seem kind of quick, especially the end, but I'm not sure how it sounds. Hopefully it'll still give you something to think about, and I've started on the next chapter already since I've been excited for chapter seven for a long time.  
_

**Mind Whisperer**

**Chapter 6-The First Rescue Mission**

The flickering light from Ashka's flamethrower sent odd shadows flittering across the walls of the cave. Water dripped slowly down the walls and from the pointed stalactites, the tiny drops sounding eerily loud in the dark silence. Kinje glanced around in awe and confusion, marveling at the several strange and captivating rock formations that decorated the walls and hung down from the ceiling overhead.

"Wow, this is amazing!" the scyther whispered, running ahead of the other two. "It's like…it's like we're on an adventure! I mean, we really are on an adventure, but…but I never thought our first mission would be somewhere so…mysterious!"

"Quiet, Kinje," Ashka warned, his fire flickering lower as he spoke. "This place could be dangerous. Let me go on ahead first, I have the light."

Kinje nodded and stepped back, letting Ashka walk on ahead. He followed the houndoom with Cera beside him.

"If you smell any pikachu scent," Cera whispered to him, "tell us. Any sign that the pikachu's brother was in this cave could help us."

"All right!" Kinje replied, his voice lowered to a whisper. However, he realized that it would be hard to find any one scent in this cave. Everything smelled strange and confusing. It was overwhelming and made his head spin. Kinje looked up ahead at Ashka, but the houndoom probably wouldn't be able to focus on scent while keeping that flame up. Hopefully, if he couldn't find a trace of the pikachu, Cera could.

As he walked, Kinje couldn't help being distracted again by the scenery around him. He had never been in a cave like this before, but he had heard stories of massive caves with beautiful rock formations that were full of rare gems. He figured that this must be one of them, or at least something like what he had heard about, but without any rare gems. As he was thinking about that, he suddenly felt his foot plunge into icy water. He pulled it out quickly, shuddering. He had stepped in a pool of water near the wall.

"Careful, Kinje," Cera warned him as she moved gracefully to his side. "You may have just stepped in water that time, but there could be places you could fall through. Just stay alert."

"Do you think it's dangerous in here?" Kinje asked suddenly, glancing at the arbok.

"The pokémon in here usually aren't very strong," Cera answered. "I think the cave itself is more of a danger, but not if we're careful."

Kinje tried to hide the obvious fear in his voice as he replied to his friend. "You mean…like deep pitfalls and cave-ins and stuff? Well, I don't think that will happen because pokémon live here so it must be safe. And if the pokémon attack us we can fight them, right? Scyther are supposed to be natural fighters-I mean, that's what my dad said. Scyther are warriors. We can survive anything!" He laughed nervously.

"Kinje," Ashka muttered from up ahead, still managing to keep the flame lit, "no one can survive forever."

"I didn't mean_forever_," Kinje called back to him. "I just meant until we die!"

"That makes perfect sense," Ashka muttered, but Kinje didn't catch the sarcasm.

"Hey, Cera," Kinje began, turning to the arbok. "Do you think we'll get one of those badges that Team Skystorm has if we rescue that pikachu? I bet my dad would expect me to get one. You see, he was a really good exploration team member. A while ago, he went off to help out another guild far away and I don't know when he'll get back, so I guess I have a lot of time. Hey, do you see that cave spike? It's shaped really weird…I think it's pretty cool!"

"It's called a stalactite, Kinje," Cera whispered, only half-listening to Kinje's nervous ramblings.

"Oh," Kinje replied. He paused for a moment. Then, "are you sure we're going the right way?"

"We don't have a scent yet," Cera sighed, trying to stay patient. "Or any other trace. As far as we know, any way could be the right way. Are you checking for any scent of the pikachu?"

Kinje nodded vigorously, though he hadn't been checking. He immediately focused on trying to do so, embarrassed over having forgotten for a little while.

The cave tunnels twisted and turned, but Kinje couldn't see any other pokémon. Occasionally, he would hear the sound of something scuttling through the darkness in some other nearby tunnel, but none of the pokémon making those sounds crossed their path or openly challenged them, to his surprise. Still, he kept his eyes fixed on the dark tunnels around them, watching for any sign of impending danger. Nothing came, and he tried to focus more on finding a trace of the pikachu's scent, although he still kept looking around nervously.

After a while he tore his gaze away from the shadows and looked up at Ashka. The light from the houndoom's fire seemed glaringly bright-making it difficult for him to see anything ahead.

"Hey! Ashka, can you make your flame smaller? It's getting really bright in here!" he called, squinting against the light.

Cera paused, and Ashka already had. The houndoom's flame was no bigger or brighter than it had been-the light was coming from somewhere further down the tunnel. Kinje jumped back behind Cera as the light made its way toward them, glowing brighter the closer it came.

An electric type, sparks flying from its fur and lighting up the area around it with a blinding brightness, dashed toward them through the tunnel. But it wasn't a pikachu. It was an electrike, a small canine covered in course green and yellow fur, and it didn't look pleased with the intruders. Kinje was painfully aware that electricity would hurt him more than the others, and he tried to back against the wall out of its sight.

"Out of our way!" Ashka growled, a red glow building in his throat. "We won't fight if we don't have to, but…"

The electrike didn't even bother to reply. As it rushed past, Ashka was hit with a bolt of electricity, making the houndoom screech in pain. Kinje froze, realizing that he was being of no help to his friends by cowering against the wall of the cave. He quickly ran up to Ashka, who was luckily only stunned by the attack, and was quickly getting over that too.

The houndoom opened his mouth, launching a fireball at the quick-moving electric type. The electrike dodged, turning around to face Ashka as Kinje appeared beside him.

A bolt of electricity flew right past Kinje's head as he reached Ashka's side and struck the wall behind him. "Leave him alone!" the scyther shouted, darting toward the electric type despite Cera's cries of "Kinje! Wait!"

The electrike may have had the type advantage, but Kinje had the advantage of speed. Reaching the small green canine in a fraction of a second, Kinje brought one of his blades down on its side. Tufts of green fur fell to the ground as the electrike darted a few feet away with a cry of pain.

"Kinje, look out!" Cera cried, and just in time, Kinje saw another electric attack making its way toward them and managed to dodge just before it struck. "Kinje," Cera told him as Ashka moved in front of them and fired another attack at the green pokémon. "That's an electric type. Let us handle it."

"But I want to help!" Kinje protested.

"You'll get to," Cera replied. "But it isn't wise to let you fight an-"

The arbok wasn't able to finish her statement. For at that moment, all four pokémon froze as a loud screech sounded from somewhere deeper in the cave, a strange, desperate, painful, unearthly sounding cry that sent shivers through every one of them. The electrike gave the tunnel ahead a frightened glance before darting away into another tunnel and out of sight.

"What was that?" Kinje asked as the sound finally faded. He didn't even bother to hide the fear in his voice.

"It didn't sound like something angry or vicious," Ashka whispered back. "It sounded like someone in trouble. Let's go!"

The three pokémon rushed through the cave tunnel, passing unusual formations that loomed eerily at them in the dark, sometimes appearing suddenly through the gloom and throwing them off guard. Kinje was half-expecting that whatever pokémon had made that other one scream would jump out at him from anywhere.

After what seemed like ages of running through black, twisted tunnels, the three suddenly burst into a large, circular, domed cavern. Massive stalactites hung down from the ceiling and there were several wide stone columns at odd areas of the room. A few lumpy looking stalagmites pointed upward from the floor, and in the center of the cavern, a shallow pool of water lay. Right next to this pool, was the limp shape of a pikachu.

Kinje stepped closer, close enough to see that the pikachu's body was covered in cuts and bruises, and it looked unconscious. Something was standing next to it-no, more than one something. There were three larger pokémon standing around the unmoving pikachu. One of them, Kinje knew, even though he couldn't see them well in the darkness, was a garchomp. He had never seen one up close, but he had heard his mother talking of them before and there was no mistaking the massive dark blue shape with huge fins and claws, and the vicious, pointed teeth that were larger than his own. His mother had been friends with a garchomp at the guild she had once been a part of, he had heard. This one, however, looked anything but friendly. Next to the garchomp was a large orange lobster-like pokémon with massive pincers and what looked like a star on its forehead-a crawdaunt, he realized. On the other side of the crawdaunt was a rather creepy cactus-looking pokémon that Kinje recognized as a cacturne from a book he had seen once.

If the other group of pokémon were just as shocked to see the newcomers barge into the cavern, they were the ones who recovered from it first. Before Kinje, Cera, or Ashka had a chance to do more than stare, the crawdaunt fired a powerful bubblebeam attack straight at Ashka, knocking the houndoom over and sending him sliding into a stalagmite. Team Shadowfang's supply bag, which Ashka had been carrying around his neck while in the cave, slid off and was sent spinning across the floor into darkness.

Cera darted forward, moving faster than Kinje would have guessed she could, and wrapped her body around the garchomp, sinking her fangs into one of his fin-like arms. The pokémon roared and slashed the long white claws on his forearms across Cera's scales, but the arbok held on tightly.

Kinje shuddered-the roar had not sounded like the garchomp was in pain, or angry, or anything. It had been empty of emotion. He put the thoughts aside-these pokémon didn't exactly seem like those absol. There could be nothing _unnatural_about them, right? He cried out suddenly when something jabbed him in the side-he looked down to see a long needle sticking out from one of the weaker parts of his armor. The sight alone made him about ready to panic, but it was the thought of what that needle _was_that filled him with terror. _Poison sting._ Having no means to pull the needle out, he looked over at Cera to see the arbok battling both the garchomp and the cacturne while the crawdaunt fought Ashka somewhere out of Kinje's line of sight. Limping, he tried to make his way to the pikachu-he wasn't feeling any signs of poison yet. That was good.

Cera was fighting the two pokémon away from the pool of water now, and Kinje reached the pikachu alone. The small electric type was still lying unmoving on the rocky floor. Kinje leaned closer, glad to hear that the pikachu was still breathing, even if it was shallow and coming in short bursts. After a moment or two, much to Kinje's surprise, the pokémon's eyes snapped open. He looked up at Kinje in surprise, his eyes wide. "Are you-"

Kinje had no chance to hear what the pikachu had been about to say. The cacturne had left the battle with Cera and come up behind him, slamming its arm into the scyther's back, several smaller needles piercing his wings. Kinje could only hope that most of them hadn't penetrated his back armor but he couldn't tell for sure. He fell sideways into the pool, splashing water all over the injured pikachu. Not wanting to leave his back exposed, he turned around and faced the enemy pokémon with a terrified expression-through the darkness behind it, he could see both Cera and Ashka-out cold. The cacturne, who was looking at the pikachu now, slowly turned its head to face him, and then something strange happened.

The moment their eyes connected, Kinje felt something that wasn't quite pain, yet was just as unbearable, surge through his body. He could not tell what exactly the sensation was, but he could not stand it. It flooded his senses, threatening to overwhelm him. With a cry, he closed his eyes and stumbled back, and whatever was happening stopped abruptly. The cacturne moved closer to him, but Kinje was too stunned to fight back. _Was that some effect of the poison?_ he thought, his mind racing. He couldn't feel it anymore, but that seemed to be the only explanation he could give himself for what had happened.

The cacturne struck him again with needle arm, knocking him further into the shallow pool, but this time he barely felt it. He found that couldn't feel much of anything anymore, or see much of anything, for that matter. Everything felt hazy and unreal, as if he was waking up from a dream. Somewhere in the background-it sounded like it was quite a long way away, he heard shouts, not coming from his friends, but coming from the three pokémon who had battled them. He couldn't tell, but he thought it sounded like a battle was going on. Then something rushed up to him and stood by his side.

"Kinje…Kinje, can you hear me?" It was Tarak, the eevee, and he was holding his paw out with something gripped loosely in his claws. It was a berry.

Kinje thought that the gesture was very odd-why would Tarak be giving a carnivore a berry? That was just silly. The scyther looked up through hazy vision at the eevee standing by his head. Making an effort to sit up, Kinje tried to fight through the haze of confusion that was threatening to overcome him so that he could see what was going on. As he did so, the pain from his injuries began to return, and once he felt that, he simply slumped down and closed his eyes, letting it overwhelm him. Tarak's hazy voice saying words he couldn't decipher was the last thing he remembered hearing.

He had never had a very high tolerance for pain.


	7. The Old Library

_((At last I finished a new chapter! I hope you enjoy this one!))_

**Mind Whisperer**

**Chapter 7-The Old Library**

When Kinje began to come awake, he had no idea where he was. He could hear vague sounds of voices around him, but couldn't really make out what they were saying. Not that he cared much, really. He had no idea what was going on, but whatever it was, it didn't concern him.

That is, until someone started shaking his shoulder and telling him to wake up.

Kinje didn't respond at first, but the voice did not go away and he slowly opened his eyes. "Did I win…?" he asked in a weak voice.

Someone laughed from somewhere nearby, and Kinje looked around, letting his eyes gradually adjust to the setting. He was in a strange room he hadn't seen before, one that looked much more tidy and clean than the Guild rooms he'd been in. There were pictures on the walls consisting of several smaller pictures together with words underneath them but he didn't bother trying to make them out. He was also lying on a bed, which surprised him-most pokémon couldn't afford to have beds made, and usually just slept on leaves or grass. However, it was certainly a lot more comfortable than the room he was supposed to sleep in at the Guild…

All of a sudden the trip to the cave came back to him. He sat upright, looking alarmed. "Where are-" he began, but a tall and stern looking blaziken was looking at him, making him shut up completely. Was this pokémon mad at him?

"Your friends?" she asked, and when Kinje nodded, she pointed to a row of beds along the opposite wall. "Over there," she sighed. "Now don't go getting out of bed-we have enough pokémon with injuries and I don't want you making yours worse."

The blaziken walked away and Kinje leaned forward on the bed, and now that he was more fully awake, noticed that there was a row of beds on each side of the room, and Ashka was lying on one at the far end of the opposite side, looking frustrated and bored. Cera was on another bed in that same row, looking like she was asleep. Kinje's gaze traveled across the row of beds along his side of the room, noticing the pikachu from the cave a few beds away, either asleep or still unconscious. Kinje looked at him, wondering how on earth they had gotten out of the cave. He couldn't remember much, apart from…

"It's about time you woke up."

Kinje turned around to see Seris, wearing his usual resentful sneer, standing beside a bed where Teri, the manectric, was laying, a peaceful expression on her face despite the bandages wrapped around her forelegs. "I thought a battling-pokémon like a scyther would have been able to wake up more quickly," the tyrogue continued, "not long after everyone else."

Kinje really didn't feel like arguing. At least, he thought, he didn't think he was injured too badly. Apart from the bandages around his waist and two of his wings, there wasn't really any other sign of injury. Ignoring Seris, he looked at the pokémon on the bed next to him, the chikorita he recognized from the Guild training.

"Where are we?" he asked.

The chikorita opened her mouth to answer, but the blaziken, who was walking past, answered instead. "You're in the Guild infirmary, of course. I just can't believe so many pokémon came back with injuries today. Serai won't be happy…" Her muttering faded as she walked by.

Kinje looked thoroughly confused. "Infirmary?" he repeated, to no one in particular. "What does that mean?"

"A hospital, you idiot," Seris muttered before turning back to Teri.

Kinje was still too confused to pay much attention to Seris. His thoughts were still drifting back to the incident at the cave. Surely someone knew what happened!

"Kinje!" Ashka shouted from the other side of the room, looking much more cheerful now that he knew Kinje was awake. The dark type stepped down carefully from his bed and walked over-Kinje was relieved that apart from some cuts and a bandaged front paw, Ashka looked all right. "I was worried about you. Glad to see you're finally awake!" The houndoom beamed at him.

"What about Cera?" Kinje asked.

"Don't worry," Ashka replied. "She's fine. Luckily Tarak and his team came to the rescue-we could have been injured a lot worse." It suddenly struck Kinje as odd that the three of them had gotten away from those pokémon in the cave so lightly, but he didn't dwell on the thought. "What about the pikachu?" he asked.

Ashka glanced over at the rodent's small form. "He's asleep now," he answered, remembering to keep his voice down. "He was awake before but said he didn't remember much after going into the cave. The nurse said he would be fine after a while though. Also, you, me and Cera aren't going to go to training tomorrow. We're supposed to rest today and take the day off tomorrow." Kinje thought that Ashka sounded a bit disappointed, but he wasn't sure. The houndoom glanced down at his injured forepaw, looking annoyed. "The nurse said we might be able to just walk around the town tomorrow, if we take it easy. Cera wanted to go look at the library." He lifted his paw and frowned. "I'm not sure I like that idea-having to walk around with these stupid bandages. I look like an idiot."

Kinje wasn't sure why Ashka would think that. He personally thought that his own bandages looked pretty cool, as if he had been in some heroic battle. He hadn't been, of course, but he could pretend that he had in his mind, at least. Before he got a chance to reply to Ashka, the blaziken nurse walked over to them.

"You're free to go," she told the houndoom. "When the arbok wakes up, she can go too."

"What about me?" Kinje asked.

"You're going to stay here for the night. We need to make sure all traces of the poison are completely gone." she told him, and Kinje didn't argue. He didn't really like his small Guild room, and though he wasn't sure if having to sleep in the infirmary was a good thing, he really didn't feel strong enough to walk up to his room anyway.

"Well, see you later I guess…" Ashka muttered. "I hope Forge will still let me stay on the team, and I…" He caught a glare from the blaziken and muttered a hasty goodbye before quickly leaving the room.

Kinje watched Ashka leave through the heavy wooden doors, feeling strangely alone even though there were plenty of other pokémon in the room. Quietly he lay down. He was considering trying to go to sleep or asking someone to tell him the details of what had happened in the cave when loud cheering broke out from some other room nearby. "What's going on?" he asked, sitting upright again almost immediately.

"It's Tarak's team," the chikorita next to him told him. "Team Destiny. They're the ones who saved you. They realized you hadn't come back in a while and thought you had gotten lost. They went in the cave and managed to fight off those pokémon and then get help. The Guild Master himself wanted to congratulate them. Most of the Guild is gathered in the dining hall. I think they're going to have some sort of feast. I don't mind not going," she added shyly. "I don't like crowds."

Kinje sort of wished he could be at the feast, but when he thought about it, he wasn't really hungry. "They're having a feast for Tarak's team?" he asked. He supposed they deserved it, really. He remembered the piplup and charmander Tarak had joined up with, and realized that if such small pokémon could manage to take down larger ones, they must be very strong. The news surprised him at first, but then he realized that he shouldn't be too surprised-he had learned from the many stories told to him about teams of small pokémon becoming heroes against all odds that he shouldn't underestimate them-even the little unevolved pokémon could be powerful. He knew he should be happy for them, but he couldn't help feeling somewhat like a worthless exploration team member. He hadn't done anything close to what they had, and he was a member of a bigger and stronger species. He felt ashamed.

"Well," the chikorita continued. "The feast is mainly to celebrate the lost pokémon being found, but yes, Team Destiny are sort of the heroes of the day I guess. You should have seen them. They looked so happy!"

"Well that's good…" Kinje replied. Suddenly he was glad that he wasn't at the feast.

"You think you can get up now?" Seris was saying from beside Teri's bed-Kinje, distracted by his voice, looked over at them.

"Yeah, Seris," Teri replied. "Are we going to the celebration?"

"Of course."

Teri giggled in a childlike way, stepping down from the bed and looking over at the other pokémon still resting. "What about them?" she asked. "Are they coming?"

"Nah, the nurse says they have to rest," Seris replied. "You're well enough to go. Come on." Teri happily followed him as he headed for the doors. Once Seris reached them and pushed them open, he turned to see Kinje looking at him. "Have fun," he said with a thin smile, which to anyone who didn't know better would probably have seemed nice. He and Teri walked through the doors and vanished.

"Eh, it's probably not that great anyway," the chikorita stated simply.

"Not when all the carnivores get is fish," Kinje agreed.

"And it's probably noisy in there," the chikorita continued. "At least here, we can get some peace and quiet!"

* * *

By the time night came, Kinje thought he had gotten too much peace and quiet. The chikorita he had been talking to was now fast asleep, and Cera had already left-she had only talked to him briefly before going to find Ashka at the feast. She had offered to bring him back some food but he had told her that he didn't want any. He was starting to regret that decision, for he felt oddly lonely.

In the dark of night, the infirmary looked strange and foreign, even more so than his tiny room by where the other Guild members slept. Everything here was so different from the forest town of his home, and this room just seemed to remind him of that fact more. He even somewhat wished that he had grass to sleep on instead of a bed; at least that would give him some sense of familiarity. And in the darkness, he kept thinking about the three pokémon had encountered in the cave. The thought scared him, and he tried not to think about it as he lay down, waiting to fall asleep. He wasn't sure he wanted to-he expected to have some sort of nightmare about them-but in the end, he finally grew tired enough and drifted off into sleep.

His dream had nothing to do with what happened in the cave.

At first the dream was nothing more than a series of random things thrown together-he was wandering through the Guild trying to find someone so he could tell them that he'd gotten the wrong kind of rescue mission request while trying to avoid a pidgeot who was apparently there to kidnap Ashka. Then things started to become strange.

He was in one of the hallways of the Guild, but it had changed from the realistic version of his previous dream. Everything seemed shrouded by an unnatural darkness, made even eerier by the fact that light was shining through the windows, even the ones that were normally facing the cave wall, though everything inside still remained black and hazy. As he carefully felt his way along the hallway in the darkness, strange shapes moved around him, and suddenly he heard a cry for help.

"Uh…hello? Who's there?" he asked, not sure where the shout had come from-it had sounded oddly muffled and quiet, and as though it was coming from everywhere at once. No answer came, and starting to get frightened, Kinje moved toward one of the windows, the only source of light.

Yet when he tried to look out of it, he could see nothing…nothing but a strange brightness that seemed unable to illuminate the hallway. A strange voice drifted to him from somewhere up ahead, sending Kinje into a panic.

In his terror, he didn't think to try and break the window. Instead, he turned and ran down the hallway in the opposite direction, not wanting to meet whatever had been making the noise. The hall seemed impossibly long, and though he could faintly make out a door at the other end he never seemed to get any closer to it the faster he ran. Then suddenly, he tripped.

He fell to the hallway's floor, feeling a disturbingly real sting of pain, and turned around to see what had tripped him. He gasped as he realized that the thing lying there was a pokémon, a breloom, motionless on the floor and covered in what looked even in the darkness like blood. Kinje tried to scramble away but suddenly found himself awake in the infirmary. He cast several frightened glances around-the room seemed filled with the same darkness in his dream-but that too faded as his eyes adjusted to the dim light.

Startled, he sat upright, glancing around the room in fear. He wanted to get up and leave-there was something about this room that unnerved him far more than his tiny assigned room on the upper floor. Even though he felt fine and was pretty sure there was no more poison left in his system, the thought of wandering the halls alone now terrified him. He glanced over at the chikorita on the bed beside him, and thought of waking her up, but decided against it.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw something move, but when he turned towards it, it was only a shadow moving near a window, probably from the clouds outside. Still worried, Kinje closed his eyes and lay back down, not wanting to be scared by anything else-real or fictional.

* * *

Kinje was rather surprised when he woke up in the morning, for he hadn't remembered falling asleep. The fear that had come from his dream was gone, and now that the new day had begun and he remembered that he had no training to go to, he was looking forward to spending his day off with Cera and Ashka.

Looking at the other beds, he saw a few pokémon sitting up, looking as if they were waiting for something, and others still asleep. Then he noticed the blaziken nurse walking in from another room.

"Hey!" he yelled. "Can I leave?"

She gave him an annoyed look. "You could try being less rude," she muttered.

"I wasn't being rude!" Kinje replied, surprised by her reaction.

"Fine, you can go," she told him quickly before walking over to another pokémon.

Kinje quickly got down off the bed and ran outside the room, thinking that his friends would probably be in the dining hall.

As he climbed (carefully) down another ladder, he heard a loud noise coming from the doorway to the dining room. Curious, he walked over to the door and pushed it open. He was greeted by the noise of several pokémon talking excitedly, and noticed almost immediately that Tarak and his team were still the center of attention. The eevee, charmander, and piplup were sitting on one of the tables, several of the other pokémon talking to them or each other or bringing the eevee's team food.

"I still can't believe you three did that all by yourself," Kinje heard one pokemon say as he was walking toward where Ashka was sitting next to Cera.

"Hey, Kinje!" a voice called, stopping him in his tracks. It was Cyal the raichu. "Don't you want to thank Tarak's team?"

"Uh…not right now," Kinje replied uneasily. Truthfully, he felt rather embarrassed to be there at the moment-everyone could tell that he was the "victim who couldn't fight his own battles." Suddenly having battle wounds didn't sound so noble, and Kinje wished he were anywhere but the dining hall. Turning away from Cyal, he hurriedly asked Ashka and Cera to come outside with him and then quickly left.

Once in the quiet of the hallway, Ashka turned worriedly to the others. "Do you think Forge will let me stay?" he asked. "I mean…we didn't succeed in the mission…"

"I'm sure he will, Ashka," Cera replied before Kinje could speak. "You've proven you're loyal to the Guild, haven't you?" Ashka didn't reply, but he looked uncertain. Cera tried to change the subject. "Well, we have today to rest, so…"

"I don't want to rest!" Kinje said quickly. "I'm tired of staying still."

"I wanted to go looking around Sunny Town," she suggested. "I heard they have a library there, and I've been wanting to see it."

"Okay, let's go!" Kinje said quickly. He'd never seen a library-in fact, he'd only seen a few actual books in his lifetime, but the thought of getting away from the Guild for a while excited him.

The three pokémon headed out of the Guild building and into town, watching the various teams and traveling pokémon as they stopped to talk to one another or buy things from shops. Kinje noticed some of them giving him strange looks and urged the others to take the shortest route to the library; after Cera asked a shopkeeper for directions, they hurried to the edge of town, where they found a large building with a faded sign over its door that looked a lot older than all the other buildings in Sunny town. As Kinje stood in front of the door, he noticed that it looked newer and a bit out of place, as if the building hadn't originally been made with a door and it had simply been added later. It felt a bit wrong to him somehow, sort of like the beds in the infirmary. All these 'new' things didn't seem to belong in the town, though Kinje wasn't quite sure why he felt that way, when they were, he knew, more useful. Carefully, he pushed the door open, taking care not to scratch it with his scythes.

He stepped inside carefully, the others following behind him. Kinje immediately looked around in awe-from the inside, the library looked bigger than any room in the Guild, and past the tables and chairs he could now see in front of him, there were very tall, very wide shelves of books lined up in rows. Without waiting for the others, Kinje darted excitedly toward the big shelves, making some pokémon already in the library look up at him in annoyance. He skidded to a halt in front of the nearest shelf, which seemed to contain mostly small books.

Kinje quickly discovered that these books were stories. While Ashka and Cera wandered around the rest of the library, Kinje excitedly pulled one off of the shelf carefully between his scythes and started reading it. He had always loved stories, and had wished that he could write some of his own. Being a scyther, he couldn't write, or at least it would be very difficult to, though his father had told him that there were pokémon in some places who would write down stories for pokémon of species who couldn't, so maybe it wasn't such a far-fetched dream.

Kinje wasn't sure how long he stayed there, but he had taken down many books (and left them on the floor-he couldn't quite find a way to put them back on the shelves neatly without accidentally knocking other books down) and read through them quickly. He had just finished reading a short story about two pichu that had out-smarted an evil houndoom when he came across a book that had a picture of a scyther on it.

The picture looked old and faded, and some of the paint had rubbed off. The scyther on the cover was glaring evilly at a cowering espeon, and Kinje carefully opened the book with the tip of his blade, trying not to rip the pages accidentally as he had done with a few of the others (he hoped no one would notice) and began reading it. It was fairly entertaining, a bit like one of the others he'd read, but he didn't mind much. The ending disappointed him-he had been hoping the scyther would win the duel with Espeon's friend Umbreon, even if he was a bad guy. At this point, he had started to get bored, and left the book lying on the ground with the others to go find Cera and Ashka.

As he passed another one of the shelves-a different book caught his eye. This one looked a lot longer than the storybooks he had just been reading, and it was lying open, one of the pages showing a surprisingly detailed illustration of Ho-oh. As Kinje moved closer to get a better look at it, he could see that the words on the pages were written a lot smaller than in the other books, yet it seemed to be a story. Curious, he began flipping through the pages, being very careful, since for some reason he felt like he should not damage this book especially.

Then he came across a picture that made him stop. Like the Ho-oh one, it was very detailed and well-painted, and in surprisingly good condition compared to the other ones he'd seen. It was a picture of a scyther, wearing armor, that looked a lot different from the one in the other book Kinje had read. Instead of having a vicious snarl and glaring red eyes, this scyther had the natural blue ones, and instead of snarling, he looked calm and brave-the sort of pokémon you'd look up to and know you could trust. He could tell by looking at the picture that this scyther must be one of the good guys in this story-he had a kind expression and the small caption beneath the picture told Kinje that he was a protector of pokémon in the city. He wasn't sure what "the city" was, but he knew it had something to do with the story, which he obviously knew nothing about. Looking at the picture, he felt a pang of regret-why couldn't he have been strong like this scyther on his rescue mission?

A sudden shout from nearby made Kinje look around-Ashka had called his name. Making a mental note to go back and read that story if he ever got the chance, Kinje wandered through the maze of shelves until he found his friends, and they left the building together. It was already past noon, and Kinje still wanted to get a look at Sunny town. As he followed Cera and Ashka along the roads, he noticed once again that he was getting odd stares-and not just him-Cera and Ashka were getting them too. He tried to ignore it and focus on looking at the shops and buildings instead. He thought of the other places they'd see in the town, and tried to feel excited again.

However, it was still hard to ignore the stares.


	8. Seris's Special Mission

___Okay, after a very (I know! DX) long delay, I finally have another chapter up. I have things to say both before and after it. First of all, this chapter is short, and not very exciting, but I promise that the next one will be much more interesting plot-wise, or at least give you more to think about. It's actually THAT one I've been wanting to write, but I had to get this one out of the way first. Also, expect most Mind Whisperer chapters to be shorter than the ones for __The Path of Destiny_; that's just how this story rolls.

**Mind Whisperer**

**Chapter 8-Seris's Special Mission**

The normally interesting shops and pokémon in Sunny Town didn't seem quite so exciting when Kinje passed them coming back from the library. He was still trying to ignore the uncomfortable stares he was getting from other pokémon as they walked by. He didn't feel like asking Cera or Ashka about it; he would rather just forget that the pokémon were staring at all. "Are there any other places like the library around here?" he asked instead, trying to find some sort of distraction.

"There's an art gallery," Cera replied. "We could go look at that."

Ashka cast an odd sideways glance at Kinje, but Kinje couldn't tell what he meant by it. "Okay!" the scyther told Cera excitedly, ignoring the houndoom.

As they continued to walk, Ashka slowed down to match Kinje's pace. "Really?" he whispered. "That sounds so…boring."

Kinje was about to reply when another, rather annoyed sounding, voice called toward them. "Having a good time doing nothing?" It was Seris. The tyrogue was leaning against the wall of a shop, eating some sort of treat that smelled like it was made from berries. Sayu and Teri were with him.

"We weren't doing nothing!" Kinje protested, "We-"

Ashka stepped in front of Kinje, giving Seris an annoyed look. "Look, if you care so much about us doing 'nothing,' why don't you make yourself useful?"

Seris just smirked. "Haven't you heard? Oh wait, no, you wouldn't have. Our team has been chosen to explore a new area. Practically uncharted. We'll be bringing back valuable information for the Guild Master. We're just getting ready to leave."

"Uncharted?" Ashka scoffed. "Hardly. Why would the Guild Master send your team out on a mission that important? There are other, more experienced-"

"If you don't believe me, ask the Guild Master yourself," Seris muttered. "We've got important things to do and don't have time to talk to you."

"Well, get a move on, will you? You sure are wasting a lot of time just standing there!" Ashka growled and stalked away.

Kinje watched all three members of Team Skystorm sneer nastily at them as they passed (though Teri's sneer was more of a goofy smile) and hurried after Ashka toward Cera, who was already ahead. "It's not fair!" he muttered when he caught up. "Why do they get to explore a new area?"

Cera answered him. "I don't know. I'm not the Guild Master. But relax. We'll get our turn."

Kinje didn't want to relax. He didn't want to wait. He wanted nothing more than to have his own new area to explore too.

"_If _I get a turn," Ashka muttered bitterly. "Forge still hasn't decided whether or not I get to stay, and after we failed our last mission…"

"You've proven that you're a loyal member, though, haven't you?" Cera asked.

"'Failure' is more like it," Ashka growled. "I want another chance. Before they have the time to decide to get rid of me. My injuries aren't so bad. I could go on another mission now!"

"You can't be serious," Cera told him in an exasperated voice. "The nurse told you to rest."

"Teri seemed just fine even with her wounds," Ashka muttered. "Besides, I can walk on this paw just fine."

"And just who do you think will let you take a mission request from the guild?" Cera asked him curiously. Ashka remained silent and sullen. "Well then," the arbok continued, "let's go."

The three of them kept going and turned a corner to a new row of shops and buildings. Ashka looked even more frustrated and angry. When they reached the art gallery, Kinje was surprised to see that it was a lot smaller than he'd expected, and a lot plainer, at least from the outside. Ashka stopped outside, clearly not wanting to go in.

Seeing this, Cera paused. "Well, if either of you want to go in, just follow me. If not, wait out here." She gave Ashka a slightly annoyed look and moved through the opening to the building.

Kinje peered inside, catching a glimpse of a few intricate portraits of pokémon, mostly legendaries. Feeling curious, he started to follow Cera.

"Wait!"

Ashka had suddenly stepped in front of him. The tall houndoom blocked his path, his eyes bright with excitement. "Why don't we follow Team Skystorm?"

"What?" Kinje blurted out. "But…but that's got to be against the rules! We aren't supposed to…"

"So what?" Ashka replied. "If _we_come back with even more information than Team Skystorm, the guild will be glad we did, against the rules or not."

Kinje wasn't sure how on earth Ashka thought they would get further in their exploration than Team Skystorm, but Ashka looked so excited that he didn't voice the thought out loud. "But Forge-"

"What about him?" Ashka replied. "He probably already thinks I'm worthless; what have I got to loose? Besides, wouldn't he feel proud of us for going the extra mile?"

"I…"

"Come on," Ashka whispered. "I'll run back to the guild and get our supplies. We can take another route to where Team Skystorm was and Cera won't be there to try and stop us. "Follow me. We've got to go now, or Seris and his team could leave before us."

Still uncertain, but not wanting to try and stop Ashka in case he_ was_ right about this being his only chance to prove to Forge that he was a useful member of the Guild, Kinje trailed behind the houndoom as he darted through the streets, looking excited. A few pokémon gave them suspicious glances as they rushed past, but Kinje tried not to pay attention. It wasn't long before they reached the massive cave opening where the guild lay.

"Stay here," Ashka whispered, and he darted into the building.

Kinje was worried that if he showed up in the guild running that fast, someone would know he was up to something. But Ashka reappeared soon with the supply bag slung around his neck, and didn't seem to have encountered any trouble. "Got it, let's go!" he called, racing past Kinje, out of the cave, and into the streets.

Kinje had a hard time keeping up with him as he weaved his way through the pokémon and stores, but at last they came to the small shop Seris had been leaning against before. Team Skystorm had gone. "Now what do we do?" Kinje sighed, secretly hoping that the answer was 'go back to Cera.'

Ashka walked up to the side of the store, sniffing the ground around where Seris had been standing. "The scent's fresh!" he said excitedly. "I can smell it, come on!" He set off at a run again, Kinje following.

They followed Team Skystorm's scent beyond the outskirts of Sunny Town and into a wide field. "We've got to keep going," Ashka stated, seeing Kinje's exhausted look. "I doubt the unexplored area is too far…I don't think Team Skystorm looked like they were going to undertake a days-long journey…"

"But why is it unexplored, then?" Kinje asked as he gasped for breath, his wounds hurting more now. Ashka, however, seemed unhindered by his injured paw.

"I dunno," Ashka shrugged. "I think Seris was making up the 'uncharted' part. It's probably a place no one's been to in a while. The Guild Master probably wants an update on the area." He paused to sniff the ground around him carefully. "Yep, they went this way."

Kinje followed Ashka through a few winding trails and then onto a part of the plain with no path at all. In some shallow mud, Kinje saw what he thought looked like Seris's footprints. They then entered a grove of trees that looked a lot less hostile than the ones in the Silent Woods. After what seemed like an eternity of walking, they came out of the trees and into another plain. The ground here seemed higher up than in Sunny Town, and Kinje's eyes widened as he saw what lay ahead of them.

A single mountain lay ahead, and although Kinje knew that there were mountains much bigger than this, it still looked impressive to him. The mountain, he realized, had been blocked from view by the trees and hills around Sunny Town, and he hadn't been able to see it on the horizon in the plains due to the clouds. He could see no other pokémon around, and started to believe that Ashka was right; that pokémon had simply stopped going here for a while.

"Let's go," Ashka stated. "It's not too far."

There was no sign of Team Skystorm as they walked to the tree-covered foot of the mountain. It seemed to take a while to get there, but the sun was still bright in the sky as they began to climb upward. Soon the trees thinned out and they were walking on rocky trails that looked as though they had been made by pokémon long ago, but there were no pokémon in sight, and no sign of Seris or his friends either.

"Huh, 'uncharted,'" Ashka scoffed. "There were obviously pokémon here, and I highly doubt that no one from Sunny Town has been anywhere this close. Seris was lying to us."

"Why did the Guild Master want information on this place?" Kinje asked. "I mean, Team Skystorm must be going here for something!"

"I dunno," Ashka replied, "there might be something else he wants to find out, but we don't need to follow Team Skystorm anymore. Let's see what we can find."

Despite how tired he felt, Kinje tried to stay alert as they wandered the mountainside. As they gradually climbed higher, Kinje realized that the mountain was even smaller than it had first seemed; at least in comparison to the mountains he had seen near his home. It didn't seem like Team Skystorm would have much to report; there wasn't really anything out of the ordinary, and there was still no sign of any other pokémon.

"There's not much here," he said to Ashka. "What are we supposed to tell the Guild Master when we get back?"

"I don't know." Ashka sounded a bit worried. "Let's keep looking."

They continued along the path, Kinje starting to wish that they were back in the comfort of the Guild. He was beginning to feel like their day off was wasted. As Ashka paused to look up and try to determine how far they had to go to get to the mountain's highest point, Kinje walked on past him, absorbed in his own thoughts.

Suddenly he stepped on a patch of ground that shifted beneath him, and some sort of strange liquid shot up from the ground where he was standing, drenching him. Coughing and sputtering, he backed away, realizing that the liquid that had shot up from the ground was extremely sticky; he had a hard time pulling his scythes apart and his wings were glued together. Ashka ran over to him, examining the odd patch on the ground, which had a hole in the center.

"Trap…" he muttered. "Good thing it didn't get on the supplies. If there's traps here, there must be pokémon." Ashka carefully sidestepped the trap and walked along carefully, Kinje following slowly behind, still trying to scrape the sticky goo off of his scythes. "Look!" Ashka said suddenly, pointing with his muzzle toward the ground. At first Kinje didn't see anything, but then he noticed that it looked slightly different than the ground around it. "Another one," Ashka whispered. "They're usually more hidden than this, though, so be careful…"

They walked along much more cautiously now, and Ashka would occasionally point out more hidden traps. Then he was pointing them out less than occasionally. Then they were so frequent that at every step Kinje expected something else to happen to him. They had to stay on the path, since the traps were unnoticeable where the ground wasn't smooth. He felt that it was extremely strange that there were no pokémon here, just trap after trap after trap…

"Do you think there's something hidden up here that someone doesn't want us to get to?" Kinje asked as he narrowly skirted another trap. He found it hard to walk around traps while he was trying to keep close to the rock wall on one side of the path they were currently on and far away from the steep drop on the other side.

"Obviously someone doesn't want us to go this far," Ashka replied. "Whether or not they're hiding something-AAAAAHHHH!"

While Ashka was talking, he had not noticed a particularly well hidden trap. Kinje himself hadn't noticed it, and when Ashka stepped on it, a gust of powerful wind blew at a sideways angle from an open hole in the ground and sent him flying over the path toward the edge of a steep cliff on the other side. The houndoom's paws flailed wildly as he fought for a grip in the loose rock, his hind legs dangling over the edge above the rocky mountainside below. "Kinje!" he gasped, his paws slipping backward as his hind legs churned uselessly with nothing to grip onto.

Fearful of other traps, but having no choice, Kinje raced over to his friend, not daring to stop to check for traps unless Ashka fell before he reached him…

His foot connected with an uneven patch of ground and another trap was activated; Kinje was blown off his feet as the ground beneath him exploded, sending him crashing to the ground feet away. Dazed, and now with a painful burn on his leg, Kinje rushed toward Ashka, who was slipping further back down the cliff.

Leaning forward, Kinje gripped the houndoom's scruff in his teeth and pulled. But Ashka was bigger than him; as only a half-grown scyther, Kinje could do nothing to pull the fully grown houndoom up the side of the cliff, and now that Ashka was barely hanging on, the houndoom couldn't even try to pull himself up anymore. Feeling like his teeth were about to rip out and terrified that he'd be dragged over the edge as well, Kinje's eyes darted around frantically. Ashka let out a desperate cry for help and Kinje became even more painfully aware of his inability to fly…

Suddenly something sent down a shower of loose rock from the part of the path that wound above them on the top of the steep slope bordering the path. Kinje glanced up as much as he could without moving his head and saw a tan shape leap from the higher part of the pathway and slide down onto the level where he and Ashka was struggling. Two more shapes followed the first and ran towards them. Kinje didn't hear any traps go off and soon the first pokémon was gripping Ashka's scruff as well; it was Sayu the leafeon. They were soon joined by Teri and Seris, who dragged Ashka over the cliff and onto solid ground.

For a moment they all sat together, panting, and then Seris stood up angrily. "You're lucky we were just coming back," he said in a low, cold voice. "Almost too lucky. What do you two think you were doing here?" There was an obvious tone of fury in his voice.

"I…" Kinje began, seeing as Ashka looked too shocked to talk at the moment.

"This was _our_ mission!" Seris growled. "_You_weren't ready for something like this. And what did you think you would do? Steal the 'glory' from us so everyone would forget how you failed?"

Kinje was about to protest, but he stopped himself. Seris was right. That had been exactly what they were trying to do.

"Thought so," Seris replied, giving Kinje a look of utter disgust. "You'd better come with us before you get yourself killed. The Guild Master is going to hear about this."

Miserably, Kinje and Ashka followed Team Skystorm as they made their way carefully back down the mountain paths, knowing that instead of fixing Ashka's problem, they had only made things much worse.

* * *

It was night by the time they made it back to the Guild. Ashka and Kinje were marched unceremoniously to the Guild Master's room the moment after Seris had informed Forge what had happened. On the way there, Kinje had spotted Cera in one of the hallways. When he tried to give her a glance, she had simply glared at him and looked away. He realized that she must have been very worried about them, and felt more ashamed than ever that he'd agreed to Ashka's plan. And if anyone could look more ashamed than he felt, Ashka certainly did.

They reached the large door to the Guild Master's room and Forge pushed it open, pushing Ashka and Kinje inside with Seris, Teri, and Sayu following. Forge swung the door closed behind them, making Kinje tremble. He busied himself with looking at all the intricate murals of fire type pokémon on the walls, hoping for anything to distract himself from whatever was about to happen, while Forge explained things to the Guild Master.

After the typhlosion was done talking, Guild Master Arcanine turned to look at Kinje and Ashka, who cringed. "In trouble again…" he muttered with a frustrated sigh. Kinje thought the arcanine was giving him in particular a rather strange look, but if he had been, the look vanished quickly.

"In other news," Seris spoke up, "we found-"

"Yes, you passed the test," Arcanine replied, not looking at him.

"Test," Seris replied in a, strangely, disappointed voice. "Yes, I figured that out when we found the paths. I suppose you want us to give you what we found in the box-"

"I'll speak to you later," Arcanine told him gruffly, and Seris didn't speak up again. Arcanine kept his gaze on Ashka and Kinje, then spoke to them. "Neither of you seem to like following rules," he sighed, as if trying to find patience. "And our healer has told me that you were told to stay in Sunny Town for a day to recover. Am I right?"

"Yes…" Kinje whispered.

"Look," Ashka began, "it was my idea. I'm the one who-"

"Yet _you_," the Guild Master growled, turning away from Ashka to look straight into Kinje's eyes, "followed him, which makes you just as much at fault." Kinje tried to avoid looking into the arcanine's eyes. "I can't let this happen again."

"You're going to send us away?" Ashka asked, suddenly looking more worried than ever.

"No," Arcanine replied. "You may stay here and do whatever punishment Forge sees fit for you." Kinje took a moment to look away from the floor and at Forge, who looked thoughtful. "But I won't tolerate any more misbehaving, or failure…" Out of the corner of his eye, Kinje saw Arcanine turn his gaze to Ashka. "Succeed in your next mission and you will be allowed stay if you abide by the rules. But remember…" Kinje dared to look up, and saw Arcanine looking down at them with a stern expression. "This is your _last_ chance."

_To be continued..._

___Okay, I have to say this; no, Team Skystorm's purpose in the story is not designated rivals/bullies, even though they seem like that now. They won't have much involvement with the main plot (or what little of that has been shown so far) until later on. Also, I really have a bad memory and can't remember how certain traps looked/worked in the PMD games...and I couldn't find my game to play it. ;-; So I probably portrayed them wrong. DX_


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